All Topics

Overdose Fatality Review

May 24, 2022 | Controlled Substances, Fact Sheets, First Responders, Harm Reduction, Health Data, Law Enforcement, Opioids, Public Health, Public Safety, Substance Misuse

Overdose Fatality Review Teams (OFR) can help states and local jurisdictions determine what factors and characteristics may lead to a possible overdose. This fact sheet explains the origins of OFR and summarizes efforts, throughout the United States, to establish and operate OFR teams....

The Delaware Restaurant Accolade Program

May 19, 2022 | Controlled Substances, Harm Reduction, Innovative Initiatives, Law Enforcement, Opioids, Prescription Drugs, Public Health, Recovery, Substance Misuse, Treatments

The restaurant industry has been particularly impacted by the opioid epidemic with, for example, ten percent of food service workers dying from opioid overdoses in the State of Delaware.[1] This sobering statistic prompted the Delaware Division of Public Health (DPH) to launch the Restaurant Accolade Program (the Program), which trains all restaurant staff and owners in the state on how to identify, respond to, and reverse an opioid overdose and helps food establishments draft policies that support employees and patrons with substance use disorders (SUDs). The Office of Health Crisis Response (OCHR) within DPH conducts the training and education....

News Bites – May 2022

May 13, 2022 | News Bites

Each issue of News Bites will highlight unique news articles from around the United States in the areas of public health and safety, substance use disorders, and the criminal justice system. This newsletter will feature stories that you may have missed but are important to the field....

Good Samaritan Fatal Overdose Prevention: Laws and Implementation

April 23, 2022 | Controlled Substances, Fact Sheets, First Responders, Harm Reduction, Law Enforcement, Opioids, Public Health, Public Safety, Substance Misuse

This Fact Sheet describes the current status of Good Samaritan Fatal Overdose Prevention Laws throughout the United States as well as findings from interviews with state drug control officials concerning the application and effectiveness of those laws....

Naloxone Access

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

This Fact Sheet provides readers with an overview of what naloxone is and a brief overview of naloxone access law across the United States....

Case Law Monitor – April 2022

April 12, 2022 | Case Law Monitor

Case Law Monitor is the bimonthly case law newsletter of the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association (LAPPA). Each issue will highlight unique cases from around the United States in the areas of public health and safety, substance use disorders, and the criminal justice system. ...

Maximizing the Impact of Settlements to Address the Opioid Epidemic

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....

News Bites – March 2022

March 9, 2022 | News Bites

Law Enforcement Treatment Initiative

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....

Model Law Enforcement and Other First Responder Deflection Act

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

The Model Law Enforcement and Other First Responder Deflection Act, drafted in collaboration with the Police, Treatment, and Community Collaborative (PTACC), 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....