The Senate is scheduled to take up a bill next week that would send $1 billion to states battling the opioid addiction crisis.
The federal dollars would be divvied up among states based on per-capita drug overdoses. By that measure, New Hampshire ranks third nationally.
The funding would help strengthen the state's growing but still inadequate network of services, including prevention, early detox, long-term housing and mental health treatment, says Tym Rourke, Chair of the Governor's Commission on Substance Abuse.
"Part of what we need to do is ease the backlog and streamline people's entry into the system and make it easier when someone does ask for help that the first interface they get helps inform them of the kind of help they need that would best suit their needs and their desires for recovery" says Rourke.
The opioid funding is part of a larger spending package that passed the House Wednesday with bipartisan support. New Hampshire's entire congressional delegation supports the bill.
