Reports & Studies

March 28, 2022 | Controlled Substances, Criminal Justice, Drug Courts, Law Enforcement, Opioids, Prescription Drugs, Public Health, Public Safety, Recovery, Reports & Studies, Substance Abuse, 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 2, 2022 | Controlled Substances, Criminal Justice, Drug Courts, Law Enforcement, Opioids, Public Health, Recovery, Reports & Studies, Substance Abuse, 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....

December 10, 2021 | Controlled Substances, Criminal Justice, Harm Reduction, Opioids, Prescription Drugs, Public Health, Recovery, Reports & Studies, Substance Abuse, Treatments

The Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University recently released a three-part report about the multi-district opioid litigation that has been making its way through the court system for many years. Part 1 of the trilogy, focuses on a series of principles governing the use of the settlement funds: (1) spending money to save lives; (2) using evidence to guide spending; (3) investing in youth prevention; (4) focusing on racial equity; and (5) developing a fair and transparent process for deciding where to spend the funding....

July 20, 2021 | Alcohol, Controlled Substances, Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, Opioids, Prescription Drugs, Reports & Studies, Substance Abuse, Treatments

A newly released report from the United States Department of Justice indicates that among all state and federal prisoners, nearly four in 10 self-reported using drugs and three in 10 self-reported consuming alcohol, at the time of the offense for which they are currently serving a sentence in a correctional facility. Many of those individuals meet the clinical definition of having a substance or alcohol use disorder - 40% for substance use and just over 20% for alcohol. Of that population, 33% of state and 46% of federal prisoners, who met the criteria for having a substance or alcohol use disorder, reported participating in a treatment program after their admission to a correctional facility....

June 22, 2021 | Controlled Substances, Opioids, Prescription Drugs, Public Health, Reports & Studies

Since the late 1990s, the United States has outpaced every other country in per capita opioid consumption. Most research suggests that high levels of prescription opioid consumption in the United States have contributed to the current epidemic of opioid misuse and overdose deaths; a review of the scientific literature through February 2020 on international opioid consumption and prescribing practices points to several possible underlying reasons explaining the difference in opioid consumption per capita in the United States....

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....

August 26, 2020 | Controlled Substances, Criminal Justice, Law Enforcement, Opioids, Prescription Drugs, Public Safety, Reports & Studies, Substance Abuse

The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics recently released statistical briefs on selected policies and procedures of local police departments and sheriffs’ offices, based on data from BJS’s 2016 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey. The tables show national estimates and distributions by population served on topics such as average hours of officer training by type of training, written community-policing plans, annual operating budgets, written directives for officer conduct, written documentation for officers’ display or discharge of firearms, authorized less-lethal techniques and restraints, and requirements for external investigations of deaths or use of force....