Controlled Substances

Inmates have recently begun fighting back against state prison policies that ban MAT medications in correctional facilities by arguing in court cases that these policies violate the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution. As courts begin to rule in favor of the inmates, states will need to reconsider their policies on MAT in correctional settings to avoid future lawsuits. ...

Opened on Oct. 1, 2018, the mission of the Austin (Travis County, Texas) Sobering Center is “to enhance public health and public safety by providing an alternative to the emergency room and jail for publicly intoxicated individuals to sober up and, when appropriate, provide a safe environment to initiative recovery.” Only Austin’s first responders (e.g., law enforcement officers and emergency medical technicians) are permitted to bring people under the influence of any substance except PCP to withdraw at the Center....

The NJOTF was created by Resolutions of the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) during their annual meeting in 2017. The Conferences recognized the need to respond to the mounting stress on criminal and family court dockets impacting state court systems across the country. Through collaboration with multiple sources inside and outside government, including experts on treatment, prevention and data, the members of the Task Force approved a comprehensive set of policy and best practice recommendations. This report is centered around these findings and recommendations. ...

Every year since 2013 the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (RMHIDTA) has published an annual report that tracks the overall impact of the legalization of recreational marijuana in the state of Colorado.  The stated purpose of these reports is to provide data that informs policy makers as they make decisions about marijuana legalization....

The co-authors of this recently released study used opioid mortality data obtained from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to compare opioid death rate trends in each marijuana-legalizing state and the District of Columbia prior to and after medicinal and recreational legalization implementation with associated trends in non-legalizing states. 78% of legalizing jurisdictions showed a statistically significant acceleration of opioid death rates after legalization implementation at greater rates than the pre-legalization rate or the concurrent rate in non-legalizing states....