{"id":19518,"date":"2025-06-28T16:51:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T15:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=19518"},"modified":"2025-06-28T16:51:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T15:51:58","slug":"naco-submits-recommendations-on-the-2026-national-drug-control-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2025\/06\/naco-submits-recommendations-on-the-2026-national-drug-control-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"NACo submits recommendations on the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"news-header alignfull\">\n<div class=\"news-header__wrap alignwide wdg-pt--lg wdg-pb--lg \">\n<div class=\"news-header__content wdg-col-8_md-7_xs-1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<nav class=\"breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><time><time>by B<\/time><\/time>laire Bryant, Legislative Director, Health NACo and Naomi Freel, Legislative Associate NACo.\u00a0 \u00a0 Jun 27, 2025<\/span><\/nav>\n<div class=\"news-header__share wdg-pt--md\">\n<div class=\"button__share\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"alignfull thirty-seventy-panel wdg-mt--md wdg-mb--md reverseOrder\">\n<div class=\"thirty-seventy-panel__wrap alignwide wdg-grid-mdGutter wdg-pt--md wdg-pb--md \">\n<div class=\"thirty-seventy-panel__right wdg-col-8_md-7_xs-1\">\n<div class=\"wysiwyg\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tweets__wrap wdg-mt--xs wdg-mb--xs\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">NACo submitted recommendations to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to ensure the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy reflects the needs and realities of county governments.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tweets__wrap wdg-mt--xs wdg-mb--xs\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">Counties are essential intergovernmental partners in addressing illicit substance use through prevention, treatment, recovery and public safety efforts at the local level.<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"wysiwyg\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">On June 20, NACo\u00a0submitted formal comments\u00a0to the\u00a0White House Office of National Drug Control Policy\u00a0(ONDCP) to help shape the development of its 2026 National Drug Control Strategy. This strategy serves as the nation\u2019s blueprint for reducing illicit drug use, and the ONDCP plays a central role in coordinating federal drug policy across government agencies. As counties remain on the frontlines of the opioid and broader substance use epidemic, ONDCP invited NACo to share the county government perspectives on federal priorities and polices that support prevention, treatment, recovery and public safety across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">Counties invest $107 billion annually in justice and public safety and $163 billion in community health systems, funding and administering services that are directly involved in responding to the substance use crisis. NACo\u2019s comments emphasized the vital role counties play and the importance of federal partnership in delivering life-saving services and building long-term recovery systems.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">Key recommendation for the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy<\/span><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Invest in the peer workforce:<\/strong>\u00a0NACo urged federal investment in peer support through training, certification programs and reimbursement pathways for peer-delivered services. Peer specialists play a critical role in county crisis response teams, treatment navigation and long-term recovery efforts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Expand community-based recovery ecosystems:<\/strong>\u00a0NACo urged expanded federal investment in community-based services such as crisis care, prevention programs, housing, employment supports and peer-run services. These investments are essential to building accessible, regional systems of care that meet rising behavioral health needs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Promote awareness and reduce stigma:<\/strong>\u00a0NACo urged support for locally led communication strategies that increase awareness, engage underserved populations and reduce stigma around substance use. County officials often serve as trusted messengers and are well-positioned to promote prevention and recovery through tailored outreach.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Remove barriers to services, housing and employment:\u00a0<\/strong>NACo urged the federal government to remove structural barriers that limit access to care\u2014such as the\u00a0Medicaid Inmate Exclusion Policy\u00a0and the\u00a0Institutions for Mental Diseases (IMD) Exclusion\u2014and to integrate housing and employment supports into recovery frameworks for those with SUDS or who are in recovery. These changes are necessary to foster long-term reintegration and community participation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Continuation of existing federal programs:<\/strong>\u00a0NACo urged continued investment in critical programs like the\u00a0Drug-Free Communities (DFC) program\u00a0and the\u00a0High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program. These initiatives are foundational to local prevention and enforcement efforts, and proposed cuts in the President\u2019s FY 2026 budget could undermine their effectiveness and coordination under ONDCP.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">Impact on counties<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">Counties are not only implementers of public health and safety strategies, but they are also key innovators and partners in national efforts to address substance use. As stewards of opioid settlement dollars and administrators of behavioral health and justice systems, counties are investing in sustainable, evidence-based solutions. But these efforts depend on strong federal support, including robust funding for ONDCP-aligned programs and active engagement in local implementation challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\">NACo will continue to advocate for county priorities and collaborate with ONDCP to ensure the 2026 strategy and other federal drug policies and priorities reflect the realities and needs of communities across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Source:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.naco.org\/news\/naco-submits-recommendations-2026-national-drug-control-strategy<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Blaire Bryant, Legislative Director, Health NACo and Naomi Freel, Legislative Associate NACo.\u00a0 \u00a0 Jun 27, 2025 Key Takeaways NACo submitted recommendations to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to ensure the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy reflects the needs and realities of county governments. Counties are essential intergovernmental partners in addressing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,14,139,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political-sector","category-social-affairs","category-strategy-and-policy","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}