Reports & Studies

The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association, together published a report that includes a comprehensive review of the laws and regulations that apply to methadone for opioid use disorder (OUD) to determine which laws and regulations would need to be amended in order to support pharmacy-based methadone treatment for OUD. This analysis (1) includes a discussion of the agencies involved in governing methadone for OUD treatment; (2) explains the provision in federal Controlled Substances Act that creates the regulatory scheme for methadone treatment; (3) describes DEA regulations governing Narcotic Treatment Programs; and (4) summarizes the general types of state laws and regulations that place additional restrictions on methadone for OUD treatment....

The Addiction and Public Policy Initiative at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law was established in 2018 through a generous grant from Arnold Ventures. Housed at Georgetown Law, the Addiction and Public Policy Initiative works at the intersection of public health and the law to advance a public health approach to substance use disorder and the overdose epidemic through legal and policy strategies that promote evidence-based treatment, harm reduction, and recovery. This reports highlights O'Neill's accomplishments over the last five years....

Total abstinence has historically been the goal of treatment for substance use disorders; however, there is a growing recognition of the health benefits associated with reduced use as a harm reduction measure in stimulant use disorders treatment. The researchers and authors of this report aimed to assess the validity of reduced stimulant use as an outcome measure in randomized controlled trials of pharmacological interventions for stimulant use disorder....

This report from the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs, details guidelines that local government officials, jail administrators, correctional officers, and health care professionals can use in providing effective health care for adults who are sentenced or awaiting sentencing to jail, awaiting court action on a current charge, or being held in custody for other reasons....

The content of this blog post is part of the USC-Brookings Institute Schaeffer initiative for Health Policy, a partnership between Economic Studies at Brookings and the University of Southern California Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics. Researchers concluded that effects of the opioid epidemic in the United States have been far-reaching, not just in terms of  health impacts, but also as far as implications for the U.S. economy....

The purpose of this report was to assess immediate and sustained changes in overall illicit substance ingestion rates among children younger than six before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and to examine changes by substance type, including amphetamines, benzodiazepines, cannabis, cocaine, ethanol, and, opioids. Researchers concluded that there was a sustained increase in illicit substance ingestion during the pandemic and that additional studies are needed to contextualize these findings in the setting of pandemic-related stress....

This document provides jail and prison administrators, program managers, medical staff in correctional settings, and reentry staff with a performance management framework to monitor medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in correctional settings....

The COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented public health emergency throughout the world, prompting providers to turn to telehealth to provide necessary health care to patients at a distance. This paper analyzes the current state of telehealth services at the federal and state levels, as well as the benefits and limitations of telehealth technology use. It also offers public policy recommendations to improve telehealth services in the United States....