ATLANTA — A top health official is urging lawmakers to restore funding for addiction services to counter the rise of opiate addiction in Georgia.

“It is at the top of the list of our greatest health challenges,” Frank Berry, commissioner of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, told a legislative committee Thursday.

“I think that anything we can do to begin to restore funding for addictive disease-related issues is something that we’re going to have to start to put some real emphasis on,” he said.

Addiction services bore the brunt of repeated budget cuts over the years, Berry said.

Berry said in an interview that the department is crafting a plan for addiction services needed in the state and how to fund them. He said the plan could help guide budget discussions.

But it’s a matter he will soon pass on to Judy Fitzgerald, the department’s chief of staff who will take over as commissioner. Berry will become the new commissioner of the Department of Community Health.

Fitzgerald described the increase of opioid addiction as a “looming challenge” for Georgia and other states.

More than 1,200 Georgians overdosed in 2014, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was a 10 percent increase from the year prior.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported the overwhelming number of autopsies performed on overdose victims detected prescription drugs. The five most common drugs found last year were oxycodone, alprazolam, methadone, fentanyl and methamphetamine.

Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, chairs a study committee on mental health reform and the Legislature’s Human Resources Appropriations Committee.

Dempsey said the effort to increase funding for addiction services is an “annual challenge.”

“The years that I’ve been working on this part of the budget, we keep hammering away at it,” she said.

This coming session, she said, will be no different.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.