White House director of National Drug Control Policy visits Houston, announces new funding to stop drug trafficking

HOUSTON – The director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Dr. Rahul Gupta, hosted a news conference in Houston to announce new funding to stop drug trafficking on Thursday.

Law enforcement officials and public health leaders joined Gupta to announce the increase in funding for those on the front lines of the overdose epidemic.

Gupta also discussed President Joe Biden’s new inaugural National Drug Control Strategy, which is a whole-of-government strategy that delivers on his Unity Agenda call to beat the overdose epidemic by focusing on two big drivers of the epidemic: untreated addiction and drug trafficking.

Participants included:

• Dr. Rahul Gupta, Director of ONDCP
• Mike McDaniel, Executive Director, Houston High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program
• Matt Slinkard, Executive Chief, Houston Police Department
• Daniel Comeaux, Special Agent in Charge (SAC), Drug Enforcement Administration
• Dr. Joy Alonzo, Clinical Assistant Professor, Texas A&M