Indiana gets $3.3M CDC grant to target opioid abuse

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Indiana’s public health agency has won a $3.3 million federal grant that will help add data on drug overdoses to an online registry that tracks certain deaths.

The State Department of Health said Tuesday the grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will fund several initiatives, including one that will allow Indiana to expand its Violent Death Reporting System to add county-level data on opioid overdoses.

State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams says the grant will help the state agency gather data to develop better strategies on preventing overdoses of prescription painkillers and other opioids.

The funding also will help improve Indiana’s prescription drug monitoring program and boost efforts to improve opioid prescribing practices.