Florida gets federal funding to fight opioids



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Florida has received $ 61.7 million to help combat opioid addiction, the US Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday.

The federal agency said the bulk of the funding, or $ 50.1 million, will be spent on drug-assisted treatment and prevention.

The remaining $ 11.6 million will help community health centers, academic institutions and rural organizations expand access to addiction and mental health services.

The awards were announced one week after the Addiction and Mental Health Services Administration released a 2017 survey on drug use and health.

The survey found that the number of Americans starting to use heroin decreased by about half between 2016 and 2017.

The number of Americans using opioid misuse has also decreased for the second year in a row. From January 2017 to August 2018, the amount of opioids prescribed in America decreased by 21%.

At the same time, the number of prescriptions filled for naloxone – a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses – increased by 264%, while the number of prescriptions for buprenorphine, a form of treatment increased by 16 percent.

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