Public Health

April 14, 2022 | Fact Sheets, First Responders, Harm Reduction, Naloxone, Opioid Antagonists, Opioids, Public Health, Public Safety, Sharps/Syringes

Naloxone is an emergency opioid antagonist that works by reversing the effects of an opioid overdose. Specifically, naloxone prevents decreased breathing which typically happens when someone overdoses on an opioid and must be given when someone shows the first sign of an overdose. Naloxone access laws delineate how someone may legally access naloxone in a particular state or jurisdiction. This includes which individuals can prescribe, dispense, or administer naloxone and what forms of civil or criminal immunity are provided, if any, for the use of the opioid reversal drug. All 50 states and the District of Columbia have some form of naloxone access law. This fact sheet provides readers with an overview of what naloxone is and a brief overview of naloxone access law across the United States....

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, First Responders, Harm Reduction, Law Enforcement, Model Laws, Public Health, Public Safety, Recovery, Substance Misuse, Treatments

 Drafted in partnership with the Police, Treatment, and Community Collaborative (PTACC), the Model Law Enforcement and Other First Responder Deflection Act, encourages the use and establishment of deflection programs on the state level. Specifically, the model act (1) authorizes law enforcement and other first responders to develop and implement collaborative deflection programs that provide proactive policing to assist individuals who are at risk; (2) offers pathways to treatment, recovery services, housing, medication for addiction treatment, whole family services, and other needed supports; (3) requires deflection programs to have certain threshold elements to be eligible to receive grant funding; and (4) requires agencies establishing deflection programs to develop comprehensive memoranda of understanding in conjunction with, and agreed to by, all deflection program partners....

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 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....

January 5, 2022 | Fact Sheets, Harm Reduction, Opioids, Public Health, Public Safety, Sharps/Syringes

Syringe Services Programs (SSPs) are harm reduction programs that provide a wide range of services including, but not typically limited to, the provision of new, unused hypodermic needles and syringes and other injection drug use supplies, such as cookers, tourniquets, alcohol wipes, and sharps waste disposal containers, to people who inject drugs. SSPs, initially limited to the exchange of hypodermic needles and syringes and often still called needle or syringe exchange programs, have been present in the United States in some form since the early 1980s. Often illegal due to drug paraphernalia laws – an issue that still exists today – only seven U.S. cities had programs by the end of 1991.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in November 2007, there were 185 SSPs in 36 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. As of February 2022, that number has increased to 414 operational SSPs in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, although only 38 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico either explicitly or implicitly authorize SSPs through statute or regulation. This fact sheet provides readers with an overview of SSPs, including the components that make up a...