This is a report from Facing Addiction that highlights the multiple pathways of recovery (e.g. SMART, LifeRing, 12-Step, Medication-Assisted Recovery, etc.) and is an accessible resource for individuals, families, and treatment professionals seeking information by outlining and describing…

This is a 2020 report from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) that discusses the strategic priorities of the federal government in relation to the supply and demand of drugs and how these will be operationalized. There is a focus on prevention, treatment, and recovery strategies…

This report describes model criteria for certifying peer support workers to ensure their competence in providing substance and/or mental health peer support services. Such criteria include providing evidence of understanding of lived experience with substances, training in core competencies,…

This is a report from the American Medical Association and Manatt Health that examines the response to the opioid crisis in four different states. Within this document, state-level efforts in six key areas were analyzed to identify best practices and provide a road map for all states to follow…

This editorial highlights the consequences of a lack of real time data on drug overdose deaths. The authors discuss how with access to reliable and timely data, healthcare policymakers can implement strategies that identify and target specific at risk populations. 

This is a guiding document from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) that provides standard operating procedures to help address the operational challenges of implementing, managing, evaluating, and monitoring a syringe service program (SSP). 

This is a presentation by several collaborating organizations that describes the community response to the opioid crisis addressing upstream, midstream, and downstream interventions, such as cautious opioid prescribing, medications for opioid use disorder, and overdose prevention, respectively…

This is a summary of findings from a report on the value of collective efficacy and social cohesion in neighborhoods to increase social action and decrease crime.  Policy recommendations are made to increase these neighborhood constructs. The entire report can be found…

This is an academic paper that provides an overview of the neurobiology and neuroscience of opioid use disorder (OUD), with diagrams showing the parts of the brain affected and the science underlying the high risk of recurrence of OUD symptoms. 

This report outlines potential strategies to increase patient access to nasal naloxone in emergency rooms and other treatment settings, thus serving as a guide for administrators, healthcare providers, and non-medical providers seeking to create reimbursable streams for naloxone. The aim is to…

This is an academic paper that evaluations an intervention to reduce unused prescription opioids by buying them back in a VA hospital. A small financial incentive ($5 per pill/$50 max) resulted in 30% of eligible patients returning unused prescription opioids. 

This report by the Health Policy Institute of Ohio finds that for the first time since the opioid crisis began, Ohio’s monthly overdose deaths started to decline markedly in the second half of 2017. Ohio’s strong policy focus on overdose reversal has likely contributed to this good news. 

This is an academic paper that examines polysubstance use disorders, the need for treatment systems to account for their high prevalence, and the high risks of developing more than one substance use disorder. For example, the increased risk of developing heroin dependence is twofold for alcohol…

This is an academic paper that describes an overdose education and naloxone distribution intervention to train opioid users and those who will come into frequent contact with opioid users, such as first responders, who, in turn, train others. There is also a focus on outreach to high-risk…

This is a report from SAMHSA that highlights 10 collaborative faith-based partnerships and outlines the steps taken by these teams in establishing a foundation for sustained strategic partnerships among community and interfaith leaders to support prevention, treatment, and recovery needs in…

This is an academic paper that provides an overview of the trajectory of the opioid crisis through the lens of a structural and social determinants of health framework. Having an understanding of the root causes of the opioid crisis, such as upstream structural factors, can inform comprehensive …

This is a presentation by Dr. Sharon Levy of Boston Children’s Hospital that gives an overview of the impact of opioid misuse on adolescents, including an emphasis on youth brain development and the risk factors that lead to opioid misuse. 

This academic paper informs that CDC analysis of patient opioid prescription data from a national electronic health record vendor during 2014–2017 found that the percentage of patients prescribed an opioid was higher in rural than in urban areas. According to this paper, there were significant…

This is a presentation that reports the results of a survey of state and local health departments on what they are doing to address opioid misuse prevention and early intervention. 

This is a paper that provides a preliminary evaluation of using peer outreach workers to identify and link people with opioid use disorder (OUD) to methadone treatment in a high-risk community in Chicago.

The results are promising as 88 active users with OUD were identified, 70 showed up…