WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s drug addiction crisis has morphed in a deadly new direction with more Americans hooked on meth and cocaine.
Trying to prevent more deaths, the government is now allowing states to use federal money earmarked for the opioid crisis to help people addicted to those drugs as well.
The change to a $1.5 billion opioid grants program was buried in a massive spending bill that Congress passed late last year. Lawmakers of both parties, as well as the Trump administration, backed the change.
Opioid overdoses kill more people nationally but meth is the deadliest drug in many Western states.
