Attorney General to Present Grant Awards Today in Barnstable

Maura Healey (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

BARNSTABLE – School children on the Cape and Islands will join those in districts across the state to benefit from opiate substance abuse prevention education funded by a grant from the Attorney General’s office.

Maura Healey will present the local awards in Barnstable today.

Grants totaling $700,000 will be distributed across the state during the initiative. Barnstable, Monomoy Regional, and Martha’s Vineyard public schools will receive some of those funds.

The Youth Opioid Prevention program provides funding for over two years to deliver the programs to students of all grade levels.

The office announced the grant cycle last fall following a settlement with CVS over the pharmacy’s opioid dispensing practices.

In Massachusetts, opioid overdoses kill over five people each day. The Department of Public Health estimates that 1,979 people, the highest ever recorded in the state, died from opioid-related causes in 2016.