Bloomberg Philanthropies said it will help up to 10 states address causes of addiction and strengthen treatment programs

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s charity has announced a $50m donation to help fight the nation’s opioid epidemic.

Bloomberg Philanthropies said over the next three years it will help up to 10 states fight the causes of opioid addiction and strengthen prevention and treatment programs.

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Bloomberg, who has been considering a 2020 Democratic presidential bid, was expected to discuss the funding on Friday during his keynote address at the Bloomberg American Health summit in Washington.

Bloomberg’s charity said CDC data shows there were more than 70,000 US drug overdose deaths last year, including more than 47,000 from opioids, the highest numbers on record. It said those numbers are a leading factor in the decline of US life expectancy over the past three years.

Bloomberg called the sobering numbers part of “a national crisis”.

“For the first time since the first world war, life expectancy in the US has declined over the past three years, and opioids are a big reason why,” he said. “We cannot sit by and allow this alarming trend to continue – not when so many Americans are being killed in what should be the prime of their lives.”

He said in a statement he hoped his charity’s work in Pennsylvania, one of the states hardest hit by the opioids crisis, would lay the groundwork “for more effective action across the country”.

Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf said he was “deeply grateful” for the financial and technical resources his state will receive through the partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said this month in its National Drug Threat Assessment that heroin, fentanyl and other opioids continue to be the highest drug threat in the nation.

Bloomberg, who has been an independent, a Republican and a Democrat, declared lifetime allegiance to the Democratic party and outlined an aggressive timeline for deciding whether to run for president in an interview with the Associated Press this month. He has regularly criticized Donald Trump and spent a fortune to help elect Democrats in the midterm elections.