The Obama Administration has awarded $94 million in funds to the Department of Health and Human Services to combat the opioid crisis.

As reported in The Washington Times:

The Health and Human Services Department said Friday it will distribute the money to 271 centers in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico so that grantees can enlist 800 doctors or other health providers to treat 124,000 new patients.

Health centers will use the money to screen patients for drug abuse and administer medication-based treatments to wean addicts off their habit, while training health professionals on how to properly prescribe highly addictive painkillers.

HHS said unintentional overdose deaths from prescription painkillers nearly quadruped from 1999 to 2013, and heroin-related deaths increased 39 percent between 2012 and 2013.

For more information read the full article in The Washington Times.