![The sights of Avalon Air Show 2025: Day Three [PHOTOS]](https://breakingdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/03/f-35-avalon-final-day-scaled-e1743079275404.jpg?#)
Opinion: Trump administration says it wants to fight fentanyl, but it’s slashing budget to fight opioid overdoses
If SAMHSA’s footprint shrinks, will the agency and the country be prepared to respond to a new behavioral health crisis altogether?
More than $8.1 billion. A little over a year ago, that’s how much the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) requested for its 2025 budget — a major increase from the $7.5 billion the agency had received less than two years before. That jump reflected the fact that the nation is mired in both a mental health crisis and an opioid overdose epidemic. Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that 87,000 people died by drug overdose nationally between October 2023 and September 2024. It remains the leading cause of death for Americans age 18-44.
On the mental health front, loneliness and isolation may well be the defining issues of our time. More than one in five Americans is estimated to have a mental illness, and suicide rates have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, underlining the need for robust services nationwide.
