Addiction is a disease that impacts all of us, which means we all play a role in fighting it – a call to action the group atTAcK addiction has made its mission. Many of its members have lost adult children to drug overdoses, yet despite the extraordinary losses they have suffered, they push for additional treatment and recovery services to help others.

Earlier this month, with many of those parents standing with me, I announced priorities for $4 million in new state resources to fight the addiction epidemic. Matching recommendations from my State of the State address, those funds will be used for increased withdrawal management services, including a new detox clinic in Harrington. The Department of Health and Social Services also will use funds to expand residential treatment services statewide; to add sober living residential beds; and to increase residential treatment beds for young people who are beginning their recoveries from addiction to heroin or other opiates.

This past week, I joined Director Michael Botticelli of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for another announcement. He said New Castle County would be among the areas with high levels of drug trafficking that would share in new federal funding. The money will be used to gather information about the shipment of drugs along the I-95 corridor and to mobilize more law enforcement agencies to carry the overdose-reversing drug naloxone. Both announcements will provide support to Delawareans and their families impacted by addiction. We must convince people in the throes of this disease that treatment is available, that it works, and that they can recover – and that will keep Delaware moving forward.

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