Michigan will get more than $50 million from the federal government to help fight the state’s opioid epidemic. The money will be spread out over two years and used for three purposes – prevention, treatment, and recovery.
Lieutenant governor Brian Calley says he’s excited about being able to use the money for increased training of doctors in addiction medicine. That’s because, he says, addiction treatment is an emerging field.
“As it’s become more mainstream and the number of addictions has grown, the need to provide additional physician training and addiction medicine training is just become absolutely critical.”
Calley announced the federal grant Friday. The money will be used in three key areas – prevention, treatment, and recovery. Specifically, the money will go toward things like training physicians about addiction medicine and opioid-prescribing practices and a 24-hour-a-day support line.
“All of these things can be expensive, but I would argue that the long-term payoff for society is enormous.”
Michigan previously got more than $30 million in federal dollars to help reduce opioid use and dependency.