The White House is shifting its focus onto the growing heroin epidemic as it has announced a federal funding on Monday to combat the use of the drug, keeping a focus on both public health and safety.

An amount of $2.5 million will be funded by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy through five ‘High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas’. The program will cover 15 states, the administration officials said Monday.

The plan would majorly focus on tracing the sources of heroin wherein a deadly opiate additive, blamed for a rising share of recent overdose deaths, is being added.

The plan also pairs with the law enforcement officials and public health workers in an effort to address the causes of the problem.

Eric Schultz, White House deputy press secretary, said, “It's also something that's very much on the president's radar. This is a pretty severe threat that we face and so this program is an unprecedented partnership with both law enforcement and public health officials to really get at the root of it”.

Administration officials told NBC News that the office of drug policy has been tracking and working to address the increasing use of heroin in trafficking and abuse over the past few years.

The initiative came in reaction to that sharp increase in heroin use and deaths, particularly in New England and other Northeastern states, which will be covered in the plan.

US health officials said in July that deaths caused due to heroin overdose in the United States nearly quadrupled between 2002 and 2013. The use of heroin has increased due to lower costs and increased abuse of prescription opiate painkillers, they said.