Letter to the Hon. John Culberson, House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Chairman, and the Hon. José Serrano, Subcommittee Ranking Member - Effectively Address Opioid Crisis In Fiscal Year 2019 Spending Bill

Letter

Dear Chairman Culberson and Ranking Member Serrano:

As you work to develop the FY19 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) Appropriations bill, we request that you include sufficient funding to help equip law enforcement agencies with Naloxone and provide education on its use. Section 201(a)(3) of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (Public Law 114-198) created the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Grant Program which authorizes the Attorney General to make grants to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies for "providing training and resources for first responders on carrying and administering an opioid overdose reversal drug or device approved or cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, and purchasing such as drug or device for first responders who have received such training to so carry and administer."

As you know, opioid addiction and deaths have reached a crisis level across the country. In 2015, nearly two-thirds of drug overdose deaths --or 33,091 of 52,404 deaths--involved prescription and synthetic opioids like Vicodin, OxyContin, heroin and fentanyl. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), since 1999, the rate of overdose deaths involving opioids has nearly quadrupled. Opioids cause death by slowing and eventually stopping a person's breathing, but there is a window for a lifesaving intervention. When administered within this window, the drug Naloxone can restore normal breathing within minutes, and may prevent brain injury and death.

Police, firefighters and EMTs are highly likely to be one of the first people on scene when a person is overdosing. As a result, first responders are more frequently carrying and administering naloxone and successfully reversing countless overdose deaths. According to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, at least 38 states have implemented Naloxone programs for police officers. However, the expense of keeping Naloxone on hand has become a crushing burden for some police and emergency services departments. An NPR report found that one fire department spent $170,000 on Naloxone over just 10 months. To keep these programs running, law enforcement agencies may rely on state and federal funding to afford the cost of Naloxone kits--which range from $22 to $60 per kit--and the costs of training officers on how to administer Naloxone. Without sufficient access out of reach, states and counties are being forced to make impossible decisions about how many times and for whom to administer the opioid reversal drug.

Therefore, we urge you to include funding to expand access to Naloxone to law enforcement agencies so they are better equipped with the ability to save lives and to combat the drug overdose crisis in their communities. We respectfully request full funding for the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Grant Programs authorized by Section 201(a)(3) of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act to provide training and resources for first responders on carrying and administering an opioid overdose reversal drug or device approved or cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, and purchasing such a drug or device for first responders who have received such training to so carry and administer.

Thank you for your work on the FY19 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations bill, and for your consideration of our requests.