The administration’s proposed budget cuts — including a roughly 35% reduction in Alaska’s HIDTA funding and large Medicaid cuts — threaten to undermine the state’s response to rising fentanyl overdoses. Alaska’s geography and limited interdiction workforce (27 officers) make it especially vulnerable, while most fentanyl enters through the mail via Anchorage. Local law enforcement, treatment providers and families urge senators to protect HIDTA and Medicaid funding to preserve recent gains and expand treatment capacity.
Federal Budget Cuts Could Cripple Alaska’s Fight Against Fentanyl Overdoses
Sandy Snodgrass has become an outspoken advocate about overdose prevention after losing her son, Bruce Snodgrass, to fentanyl poisoning in 2021.Photograph: Ash Adams/The Guardian
The Trump administration’s proposed reductions to federal law enforcement and public health funding could critically undermine Alaska’s efforts to prevent overdose deaths, local officials warn. A Guardian analysis found Alaska has not achieved a lasting decline in overdose fatalities even as national numbers have broadly fallen — and looming cuts risk reversing recent progress.
What’s at Stake
Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case singled out a projected 35% cut to Alaska’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) funding — a reduction he estimates could be more than $100 million. Established in 1988, HIDTA helps coordinate federal, state and local law enforcement in high‑risk trafficking regions. Case says HIDTA’s resources have markedly improved interdiction capacity since Alaska became a HIDTA region in 2018.
Geography, Logistics and the Mail
Alaska faces unique challenges: the state is more than twice the size of Texas, has many remote communities accessible only by air, and lacks a central highway system. Cornelius Sims, commander of the state troopers’ drug unit, said there are only 27 officers dedicated to drug interdiction across this vast area. Most illicit fentanyl and other synthetic drugs now enter Alaska through the mail, with Anchorage serving as a primary point of entry.
Why Fentanyl Makes This Especially Dangerous
Fentanyl was involved in roughly 66% of U.S. overdose deaths in 2023–2024, while cocaine was involved in about 28%. Federal operations the administration has prioritized overseas — including actions off Venezuela, a major source of cocaine — may not address the fentanyl flows driving most recent fatalities. There is no public evidence the vessels targeted off Venezuela were carrying fentanyl.
Medicaid Changes Compound the Risk
Policy experts warn that changes in the so‑called "big, beautiful bill" could remove Medicaid coverage for many people with substance use disorders. Richard Frank of the Brookings Institution says the bill’s work requirements and paperwork burdens are likely to disenroll people in treatment. The measure projects about $911 billion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade and would impose an 80‑hour‑per‑month work requirement for recipients, with unclear exemption procedures for those with addiction.
Local Providers and Treatment Capacity
Medicaid is a major payer for addiction services in Alaska: about 211,000 Alaskans — more than a quarter of the state’s population — receive Medicaid. Inpatient and recovery expansions depend heavily on that funding. Sam Garcia of the Anchorage Recovery Center described a planned "full recovery campus" with nearly 200 beds, mobile crisis services and supportive housing — projects that rely in part on Medicaid reimbursements. Karl Soderstrom, founder and CEO of True North Recovery, said 90% of his organization’s revenue comes from Medicaid.
Voices On The Ground
“I think the stakes are a lot higher right now just because of the high number of overdoses that we’re having,”
— Anchorage Police Chief Sean Case
Community advocates also fear the impact. Sandy Snodgrass, who lost her son Bruce to a fentanyl overdose in 2021, has used HIDTA grants for public awareness campaigns and helped shepherd "Bruce’s Law," a federal measure to increase fentanyl awareness and create a working group on contamination.
Coordination and Response
HIDTA funding supports training, overtime, equipment and interagency coordination. Alaska HIDTA’s summer operations this year led to 27 arrests and helped build cross‑jurisdiction relationships that officials say improve year‑round enforcement. Police chiefs in Alaska have urged Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan to oppose cuts and seek increased support instead.
What’s Next
The final status of HIDTA funding and Medicaid changes remains uncertain. Local leaders, treatment providers and bereaved families argue the state needs more resources — not fewer — to stem fentanyl’s lethal impact, expand treatment access and protect rural communities especially vulnerable to small quantities of illicit drugs.
Reporting note: This article was produced as part of the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2025 Impact Fund for Reporting on Health Equity and Health Systems.
