Governor Roy Cooper has proclaimed September as National Recovery Month to emphasize the importance of substance use disorder treatment and prevention and show support for the people across the state who struggle with addiction.

“Alcohol and drug addiction are complex public health and public safety issues,” Governor Cooper said. “While we’ve made progress in the fight against this epidemic, we must continue our work to ensure effective treatment is accessible and affordable to help people recover.”

Governor Cooper is committed to ensuring that substance use disorder treatment remains accessible across North Carolina. In 2019, he signed House Bill 325, the Opioid Epidemic Response Act, to help increase access to medication assisted treatment and expand harm reduction measures to reduce opioid overdose deaths across the state.

In June 2017, the Governor unveiled North Carolina’s Opioid Action Plan to combat the opioid crisis, and he released an updated Opioid Action Plan in May 2021 to continue addressing this issue. Since then, the state has seen decreases in opioid dispensing, and the state has received over $54 million in federal funding to provide treatment and combat this crisis.

Governor Cooper issued Executive Order No. 48 in 2018. The Order paved the way for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) to apply for $25 million in federal funding to combat the opioid crisis in North Carolina. NCDHHS is continuing its work to support alcohol and drug addiction recovery initiatives across the state.

Expanding Medicaid is a proven strategy to fight the drug epidemic. Medicaid expansion would provide coverage for up to 600,000 working North Carolinians. Currently, the state is losing $521 million every month it hasn’t expanded Medicaid.

Read the Proclamation.