Minnesota Dedicates $200 Million to Combat Substance Abuse Crisis

In the recently completed 2023 legislative session, Minnesota lawmakers passed laws that dedicate $200 million to fight the state’s growing substance abuse crisis, with a particular focus on opioid abuse. According to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), the number of opioid overdose deaths almost tripled between 2018 and 2021. This crisis disproportionately affects people of color, with Native Americans more than 10 times as likely to die from a drug overdose than white Minnesotans, and Blacks more than 3X as likely to die.

Axios reports that state legislators passed laws that:

• Require overdose reversal medication for schools, jails, and law enforcement
• Dedicate $10 million to housing for people struggling with substance abuse
• Allow the sale of fentanyl test strips at liquor stores
• Dedicate $26 million for "harm reduction" services, such as sterile needle exchange, access to health care, and personal hygiene facilities
• Direct more funds to peer-to-peer recovery and groups working within communities at greater risk of overdose, including Black and Native American populations

In addition, the state is increasing criminal penalties for individuals selling fentanyl, which is responsible for an increasing number of drug overdoses.

Jeremy Drucker, the head of the state's office of Addiction and Recovery, said the overarching goal is to reduce overdoses and create an “entryway as a pathway to recovery” by offering other needed services to people struggling with substance use.

Those of us at Valley Medical and Wellness recognize the growing substance abuse crisis and support the state’s efforts to reduce the number of overdoses and overdose deaths. We commit to expanding our efforts to help our patients fight substance abuse by opening more and larger clinics to support our growing patient base. To that end, we recently moved to a larger clinic in downtown Minneapolis, are planning to move to a larger clinic in Rochester, and expect to open a new clinic in Plymouth later this year. All our clinics treat patients suffering from addiction to a variety of substances, including fentanyl and other opioids.

To learn more about our addiction treatment services, click here or contact us at info@valleymedical.com or 612-444-3000.

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Author

Michael Miller Michael Miller is a Business Process Writer at Valley Medical and Wellness. He's an established writer with more than 200 books and thousands of articles published over the past three decades. He writes on a variety of topics, from healthcare to technology to music. He is also a member of the Interstellar Foundation, dedicated to telling the story of humankind via NASA spacecraft traveling beyond the solar system.