In Case You Haven't Heard…

Abstract

From the what's in a name department … If you're used to seeing Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment block grant, sometimes referred to as the Substance Abuse Block Grant, the omnibus bill late last December got rid of the nomenclature. What for years we have called SAPT BG or SABG is now called the SUPTRS (Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services) Block Grant. This is new language designed to get “abuse” out of the name. Interestingly, the agency still in charge of the grant, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), has not had a name change yet. (Senior media advisor Chris Garrett told us: “SAMHSA appreciates that the FY23 Omnibus made changes to several programs to remove the stigmatizing and inaccurate use of the word ‘abuse.’ We look forwarding to continuing to work with Congress to eliminate the use of the word in other places in the statute in the future.” Our comment on this – SAMHSA employs people with the most open, non‐stigmatizing views toward substance use – than any other federal agency.) Also interestingly, really, preventing all substance use? And one more interesting fact: There is no recovery set‐aside in the block grant, which is the money that groups wanted. States, of course, are free to put their block grant money — whatever it's called — wherever the block grant authorization allows.