BREAKING: Missouri Counties Can Now Get Funding for Local Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs Thanks to McCaskill Efforts

Press Release

Missouri counties can now receive federal funding for local prescription drug monitoring efforts thanks to sustained efforts from U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill. The Department of Justice announced today that they will use a provision of federal legislation, which McCaskill helped shape, to allow Missouri counties to apply for local funding for prescription drug monitoring programs to help combat the opioid epidemic. Missouri is the only state without such a program at the state level.

"This is great news for the Missouri counties doing the critical work of setting up their own prescription drug monitoring programs while Jefferson City continues to sit on its hands," said McCaskill, a former courtroom prosecutor. "I'm thrilled we'll be able to provide folks at the county level with the tools they need to combating the opioid epidemic that's wreaked havoc on our communities."

A motion shaped by McCaskill was successfully included in last year's Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act--federal legislation that provides resources to states to combat the number of prescription drug and heroin deaths across the country--and which enables Missouri's network of county-level monitoring programs to be eligible to apply for federal resources. Without this provision, eligibility for this federal grant funding would have been limited to states.

Until today however, the language McCaskill successfully added allowed local governments in Missouri with drug monitoring programs to apply for a new Department of Health and Human Services grant to establish, maintain, or improve their local drug monitoring program--but left out funds from the Department of Justice.

On her tour last year of Missouri with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, McCaskill highlighted the need for change in Missouri law to create a prescription drug monitoring program. Among Midwestern states, Missouri ranks number one in the rate of prescription opioids sold in the region. McCaskill also traveled to Jefferson City, Mo. earlier this year to hold a field hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging and highlight the national epidemic of increased opioid addiction, abuse, and overdose deaths.

Source