Opioids

May 19, 2022 | Controlled Substances, Harm Reduction, Innovative Initiatives, Law Enforcement, Opioids, Prescription Drugs, Public Health, Recovery, Substance Misuse, Treatments

The restaurant industry has been particularly impacted by the opioid epidemic with, for example, ten percent of food service workers dying from opioid overdoses in the State of Delaware.[1] This sobering statistic prompted the Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) to launch the Restaurant Accolade Program (the Program), which trains all restaurant staff and owners in the state on how to identify, respond to, and reverse an opioid overdose and helps food establishments draft policies that support employees and patrons with substance use disorders (SUDs). The Office of Health Crisis Response (OCHR) within DPH conducts the training and education....

March 28, 2022 | Controlled Substances, Criminal Justice, Drug Courts, Law Enforcement, Opioids, Prescription Drugs, Public Health, Public Safety, Recovery, Reports & Studies, Substance Misuse, Synthetic Drugs

In September 2021, Georgetown University Law Center convened an Opioid Litigation Summit. This convening brought together numerous experts to discuss legal, administrative, and programmatic strategies needed to optimize the impact of proceeds from the opioid litigation. The themes described in this brief emerged from the Summit and can be applied to the opioid litigation as well as future mass tort litigation to address public health crises....

March 3, 2022 | Controlled Substances, Harm Reduction, Innovative Initiatives, Law Enforcement, Opioids, Prescription Drugs, Public Health, Recovery, Substance Misuse, Treatments

When Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro learned that approximately 15 citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania die each day from an overdose, he took action. As a result, in May of 2018, he launched the Law Enforcement Treatment Initiative (LETI) to connect individuals suffering with a substance use disorder (SUD) to treatment resources....

March 2, 2022 | Controlled Substances, Criminal Justice, Drug Courts, Law Enforcement, Opioids, Public Health, Recovery, Reports & Studies, Substance Misuse, Synthetic Drugs

“Stigma” is defined as stereotypes or negative views attributed to a person or groups of people whose characteristics or behaviors are viewed as different from, or inferior to, societal norms. Surveys of public attitudes about various stigmatizing conditions indicate that individuals with a substance use disorder are viewed more negatively than individuals with a mental disorder. This report, released in collaboration with Rulo Strategies LLC, explores efforts to reduce stigma towards individuals with a substance use disorder in public safety and justice settings....

February 16, 2022 | Controlled Substances, Criminal Justice, Fentanyl, Law Enforcement, Opioids, Reports & Studies, Synthetic Drugs, Trafficking

The Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking, established under Section 7221 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, was charged with examining aspects of the synthetic opioid threat to the United States—specifically, with developing a consensus on a strategic approach to combating the illegal flow of synthetic opioids into the United States. This final report describes items involving the illegal manufacturing and trafficking of synthetic opioids, as well as the deficiencies in countering their production and distribution, and includes action items directed to appropriate executive branch agencies and congressional committees and leadership....

February 8, 2022 | Controlled Substances, Criminal Justice, Harm Reduction, Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), Naloxone, Opioids, Prescription Drugs, Public Health, Recovery, Substance Misuse, Toolkits, Treatments

The 2022 AMA-Manatt Toolkit builds on a previously published roadmap by providing actionable resources that states can use to take specific actions in six policy areas: (1) Increase access to evidence-based treatments to help patients with a substance use disorder (SUD); (2) Ensure access to addiction medicine, psychiatry, and other trained physicians; (3) Enforce mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) parity laws; (4) Improve access to multidisciplinary, multimodal care for patients with pain; (5) Expand harm reduction efforts to reduce death and disease; and (6) Improve monitoring and evaluation....