The law seeks to enhance community resources to tackle an ongoing opioid overdose scourge which claimed the lives of more than 28,000 Americans in 2014. Its provisions include: expanding the availability of the opioid antidote naloxone to police and first-responders; encouraging states to seek alternatives to jail time for addicts; allowing more medical professionals to administer medications that can fight addiction; and expanding prescription drug monitoring programs to identify patients at risk of addiction, among other measures.
There’s just one problem: the bill doesn’t actually fund any of these programs.
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