Biden Administration Unveils Year 1 Drug Policy Priorities

On Thursday, ONDCP acting director Regina LaBelle unveiled the roadmap that will guide the Biden administration’s approach to addressing the addiction crisis during its first year in office. The administration will concentrate on seven specific areas in its first-year drug policy:

• Expanding access to evidence-based treatment
• Advancing racial equity in the administration’s approach to drug policy
• Enhancing evidence-based harm reduction efforts
• Supporting evidence-based prevention efforts to reduce youth substance use
• Reducing the supply of illicit substances
• Advancing recovery-ready workplaces and expanding the addiction treatment workforce
• Expanding access to recovery support services

“The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the addiction and overdose epidemic, leaving many families and communities hurting,” LaBelle said in a news release. “These priorities lay out the aggressive, evidence-based, whole-of-government response that we need to implement in the first year of this Administration in order to bend the curve.”

The full Drug Policies for Year One document is available on the White House website.

LaBelle is scheduled to discuss the administration’s drug policy at the Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit on April 7.