SALT LAKE CITY — A Trump Administration preliminary budget proposal suggests plans to cut about two dozen substance abuse prevention and treatment programs.
FOX 13 News spoke with a criminal justice outreach coordinator for an addiction treatment center about what those proposed federal budget cuts could mean for the future.
“These services are vital to people’s lives,” said Jareth Williams with Odyssey House of Utah. “Without it, we’d lose so many more.”
Over the last decade, research has shown that fentanyl is taking over when it comes to overdose deaths. According to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services, there was a 1,160 percent increase in deaths involving fentanyl from 2014 to 2023.
WATCH: Fentanyl, Methamphetamine have powered rising overdose rates, author says
The Odyssey House provides harm reduction services, including fentanyl test strips and naloxone. Williams said they’ve served over 340 people so far.
“It means a lot to me,” he said. “I have a lot of passion for this line of work.”
That’s because it hits close to home. Williams started using drugs after his father left when he was just a teenager. He struggled with addiction for years, he said.
“When I first started, I was just trying to mask these feelings of abandonment,” he said.
Almost a decade later, he now helps people recover and heal. He works closely with prisons and jails to find people who are struggling with addiction and helps them find treatment.
A man who Williams worked with was addicted to meth, heroin, and fentanyl for nearly eight years. But last year, he decided to make a change, Williams said.
“He went and did their sober living for a while and then was able to get out of there and get his own place,” Williams said. “Now, he’s starting a family.”
