Delaware’s latest efforts to combat opioid addiction has a $5.6 million price tag, should state lawmakers choose to approve it.
Opioids, which include heroin and prescription painkillers, have troubled law enforcement and health workers for years and were a part of the agenda Gov. Jack Markell (D-Delaware) outlined in his State of the State address.
Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) wrapped up its testimony before the budget writing Joint Finance Committee (JFC) Thursday asking for about $3.6 million to bolster current addiction programs. That proposed funding would put about 20 new addiction treatment specialists in the community and strengthen employment programs, among others.
Markell called for another $2 million, but didn’t outline how it would be spent. Kevin Ann Huckshorn, head of DHSS’s Substance Abuse Division says those plans will come next month.
“We’re having a conference in March where a number of state leaders are coming together to kind of develop a three-year rollout and I think during that meeting and probably right afterwards, there will be some decisions made on how to spend this money this year – or how best to spend it to get the best bang for our buck,” said Huckshorn.
Initially, Delaware's addiction issues stemmed from easily obtainable prescription drugs, but new laws helped to curb their availability.
But Huckshorn told the JFC that legislation had unintended consequences, likening the situation to a waterbed.
“When you sit on the edge of a waterbed, which is what that [Prescription Drug Action Committee] program did – that prescription drug monitoring program – something else moves on the other part of the waterbed, right? So what it did was, it shut down the supply to a lot of people who had become addicted,” said Huckshorn.
She says those addicts quickly turned to cheap and plentiful heroin.
The funding request will receive further consideration in early June during JFC budget markup hearings.
