A Crisis Of His Making: Biden Increases Spending To Get Kids Off Drugs That Came Through Open Borders

By Jacob Taylor | Saturday, 20 August 2022 04:45 PM
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A Crisis Of His Making: Biden Increases Spending To Get Kids Off Drugs That Came Through Open Borders

The White House on Thursday is declaring over $12 million in funding for programs to prevent substance abuse by young people across the U.S. as the Biden administration looks to tackle what it describes as an "overdose epidemic."

The $12.4 million in grants will fund 99 programs that are working to prevent youth substance abuse -- including a range of substances from opiods to marijuana, tobacco and alcohol.

It was declared at the Putnam Wellness Coalition in West Virginia by Dr. Rahul Gupta, the director of the White House's Office of National Drug Policy, who announced that such grants reinforce the commitment to preventing youth substance abuse as part of President Biden's agenda to beat the "overdose epidemic."

"I strongly believe that prevention efforts, especially for children and youth, is the best return on investment we can make as a nation," Gupta told Fox News Digital in an interview. "Drug-Free Communities grants go directly from the White House to local communities, allowing us to leverage taxpayer funds directly into impact youth prevention."

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The grants are being deployed in line with the National Drug Control Strategy declared by President Biden last year, which uses a whole-of-government approach to extend access to prevention and recovery resources while further cracking down on drug supplies.

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Specifically, when it comes to youth substance abuse, the grants aim to address factors that can lead to it -- including mental health and academic issues, as well as poverty. They are funded by the Drug-Free Communities Support Program, formed in 1997 to prevent youth substance abuse. Thus far in fiscal year 2022, 745 community programs have received more than $93 million in grant funding, the White House said.

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"We know from evaluations that we've done, because there's a strong evaluation component, that when this work is happening in those 700 communities across the country, the rates of substance use in youth like tobacco, drugs, marijuana and others goes down as compared to those that don't have these programs in their communities," Gupta announced.

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"This is a top priority, with a sense of urgency to address the abuse crisis, but it starts with prevention and prevention is the best return on investment when you look at it. And getting money directly to communities is so vital to make sure that [prevention programs] are working and they're working effectively," he stated.

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The grants will raise awareness of the dangers of illicit fentanyl, which has become a major national disaster in recent years and one that the White House has taken a multi-faceted approach to address.

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