Public Safety

November 16, 2021 | Controlled Substances, First Responders, Harm Reduction, Model Laws, Naloxone, Opioid Antagonists, Opioids, Public Health, Public Safety, Recovery, Substance Abuse, Treatments

LAPPA’s Model Expanded Access to Emergency Opioid Antagonists Act provides state officials with the means to increase the ability of their citizens to access and use life-saving emergency opioid antagonists. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that over 934,000 Americans died from a fatal overdose involving an opioid between 1999 and 2020. Opioid antagonists, such as naloxone, can be used during emergencies to reverse opioid overdoses and are effective in preventing fatal drug overdoses. This Act: (1) enables all citizens to access emergency opioid antagonists; (2) encourages citizens to obtain emergency opioid antagonists; (3) grants immunity to individuals who administer opioid antagonists; (4) requires physicians to co-prescribe an emergency opioid antagonist when prescribing an opioid to someone; (5) ensures that health insurance covers emergency opioid antagonists, like naloxone; (6) prohibits discriminatory life and health insurance practices related to the possession of emergency opioid antagonists; (7) provides increased access to opioid antagonists in educational institutions and correctional settings; (8) establishes a pilot program to increase bystander access to emergency opioid antagonists; and (9) promotes initiatives that educate citizens on the life-saving potential of emergency opioid antagonists....

July 26, 2021 | Controlled Substances, Drug Courts, First Responders, Law Enforcement, Legal & Legislative Research, Public Health, Public Safety, Substance Abuse, Treatments

All across the U.S. jails are filled with people who need medical care and social services, many of whom cycle in and out of jail without ever receiving the help they need. One emerging model to combat this problem is deflection, which seeks to prevent individuals who have low to moderate criminogenic risk, but significant unmet social, economic, and health needs, from entering the criminal justice system. The goal of deflection programs is to lessen the burden on the criminal justice system by connecting those individuals—before they enter the criminal justice system—to treatment and social services to which they might not otherwise have access. This document is designed to: (1) provide a singular resource for each jurisdiction’s deflection laws; (2) allow for a comparison of these laws between jurisdictions; and (3) identify and highlight interesting provisions....

June 29, 2021 | Innovative Initiatives, Opioids, Public Health, Public Safety, Synthetic Drugs

One of the ways in which jurisdictions are combating the epidemic of drug overdoses in communities is through the use of “spike alerts,” that is, targeted messages that notify recipients that there is an unexpected increase in drug-related overdoses in a specific area. The purpose of these notifications is to “reduce injury or death from opioid overdoses during spike events.” ...

June 11, 2021 | First Responders, Law Enforcement, Model Laws, Public Safety

LAPPA's Model Law Enforcement Event Deconfliction Act (the Act) is intended to implement procedures across the country to safeguard law enforcement from incidents of “friendly fire.” The Act requires that law enforcement personnel utilize event deconfliction software, which will notify them of any potential conflicts with other law enforcement activity in the same area, including service of arrest or search warrants, surveillance operations, or other high-risk or specialized law enforcement activities. The Act further requires that law enforcement personnel take positive action upon being notified by the event deconfliction system of a conflict and provides penalties for failure to take such action. The Act was drafted with the invaluable assistance of members of the law enforcement community. ...

April 19, 2021 | Controlled Substances, First Responders, Naloxone, Opioids, Prescription Drugs, Public Health, Public Safety, Reports & Studies

In recent years, some states have enacted Good Samaritan and Naloxone Access laws to help reduce overdose deaths and respond to opioid overdoses.The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016 included a provision for GAO to review these laws. This report addresses the following: (1) the efforts ONDCP has taken to collect and disseminate information on Good Samaritan and Naloxone Access laws, (2) the extent to which states, territories, and D.C. have these laws and the characteristics of them, and (3) what research indicates concerning the effects of Good Samaritan laws.To answer these questions, GAO collected and reviewed ONDCP documents and interviewed agency officials. GAO also reviewed and analyzed selected characteristics of jurisdictions' Good Samaritan and Naloxone Access laws. Further, GAO conducted a literature review of empirical studies published from 2010 through May 2020 that examined the effects of Good Samaritan laws....