Substance Misuse

July 17, 2023 | Criminal Justice, Fact Sheets, First Responders, Law Enforcement, Public Safety, Substance Misuse

Deflection is any collaborative intervention connecting law enforcement, other first responders, and community responders with public health systems to create pathways to treatment and services for individuals—with low to moderate criminogenic risk—who have a substance use disorder, mental health disorder, or co-occurring disorders and who often have other service needs. This fact sheet provides an overview of what deflection is, examples of initiatives utilizing one or more of the six recognized deflection pathways, and a brief description of the status of deflection-related laws in the United States....

June 6, 2023 | Controlled Substances, Fact Sheets, Substance Misuse

This fact sheet addresses the growing misuse of ketamine, an anesthetic used medically in both humans and animals as a short-acting painkiller. Ketamine can produce dissociative sensations, feelings of euphoria, and hallucinations, and it is popular as a “club drug” among teens and young adults at dance clubs and raves. Most of the ketamine illicitly distributed in the U.S. is either diverted or stolen from legitimate sources, particularly veterinary clinics, or smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico....

June 6, 2023 | Fact Sheets, Novel Psychoactive Substances, Substance Misuse, Synthetic Drugs

The Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association (LAPPA) is monitoring the emergence of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) appearing on the illicit drug market in the United States. The term “novel” does not denote a new, never-before-seen substance but rather a substance that is newly available in the drug market. This fact sheet, the fourth in a series highlighting these potentially dangerous drugs, examines isotonitazene, a synthetic opioid recently classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act....

June 6, 2023 | Opioids, Public Health, Reports & Studies, Substance Misuse

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....

April 24, 2023 | Alcohol, Controlled Substances, Fentanyl, Marijuana, Methamphetamine, Opioids, Prescription Drugs, Public Health, Reports & Studies, Stimulants, Substance Misuse, Synthetic Drugs

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....

March 14, 2023 | Controlled Substances, Model Laws, Opioids, Public Health, Substance Misuse, Treatments

The purpose of the  Model Substance Use Disorder Treatment In Emergency Settings Act (Act) is to establish and align mechanisms for maximizing emergency medical settings as intervention points for people who experience a substance use-related emergency, people with substance use disorders, and their families. This Act intends to do so by addressing the barriers to implementing protocols in emergency medical settings that would ensure evidence-based treatment of patients with substance use-related emergencies....

March 7, 2023 | Controlled Substances, Fetal and Infant Health, Harm Reduction, Maternal Health, Model Laws, Public Health, Recovery, Substance Misuse, Treatments

The Model Substance Use During Pregnancy and Family Care Plans Act (1) provides certain protections to pregnant or postpartum individuals with a substance use disorder so that such individuals are not penalized for receiving medical treatment, including medication(s) to treat the substance use disorder and (2) establishes that an infant born affected by parental substance use disorder or showing signs of withdrawal is not, by itself, grounds for submitting a report of child abuse or neglect. ...

February 22, 2023 | Controlled Substances, Harm Reduction, Innovative Initiatives, Naloxone, Opioid Antagonists, Opioids, Prescription Drugs, Public Health, Recovery, Substance Misuse, Treatments

In the beginning of 2022, the West Virginia Drug Intervention Institute, the West Virginia Collegiate Recovery Network, and Marshall University, a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia, launched an overdose prevention initiative on every public and private college campus in West Virginia. The program, entitled, “Be The One” focuses on opioid overdose prevention from a bystander’s perspective, encouraging students, staff, and faculty to “be the one” to save a life....