This is a report which offers a checklist of methods that health insurers and purchasers can utilize to promote safe and affordable care while also emphasizing opioid safety and lowering opioid related deaths. The four primary areas of focus for this checklist are prevention, management,…

This is a report from the Institute for Excellence in Government (author Wiseman) that presents several case studies that use data-driven approaches to address the opioid crisis. Themes in the cases examined were that collaboration is key, leadership matters, and continuous experimentation is…

A Health and Human Services (HHS) report by RAND that presents findings from a scoping study to assess the types of data sources and data-linkage efforts that are currently being used or could potentially be leveraged to support research and evaluations to combat the opioid crisis. Alternative…

This article discusses how current anti-drug policies around the world have historically targeted marginalized communities. The authors provide suggestions for new drug-related policies that aim to decrease incarceration rates through methods such as the decriminalization of drug-related…

This is an academic paper that provides commentary on the initiative in Burlington, Vermont to decriminalize the possession of buprenorphine, written by a state attorney and the chief of police, and the plan to initiate the same legal approach in Philadelphia. Burlington had a 50% decrease in…

This is an academic paper that summarizes the cascade of care model for opioid use disorder (OUD) and applies it to Rhode Island. The touchpoints for this model include identifying those at risk for OUD, diagnosed with OUD, initiated in OUD treatment, retained in OUD treatment, and in recovery…

This report summarizes presentations and discussions that took place during a public workshop examining the use of in-home drug disposal systems, with a focus on removing unused opioid analgesics from the home. This document highlights different types of drug disposal and initiatives targeting…

This is a collection of reports from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing that provides resources to support the adoption and implementation of deflection and pre-arrest programs (DPAP) to better support people at risk of opioid overdose. Successful initiatives across the United States are…

In this academic paper, the Appalachian region of Eastern Kentucky, which has been disproportionately affected by the opioid crisis, was used as the context for a healthcare hackathon, run by MIT Hacking Medicine, to create grassroots healthcare innovation ideas through a systematic design…

This is an issue brief, made possible by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, that highlights key features of approved health home models in Maryland, Rhode Island, and Vermont that are tailored to individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD).

The document identifies important…

This is an academic paper that presents a deterministic understanding of the choice model of addiction that has the potential to mitigate blame for addictive behavior, thereby reducing stigma.  

This is a report from the Prevention Institute that provides information on how to use the Adverse Community Experiences and Resilience (ACE|R) Framework to plan community responses to the opioid crisis, with a focus on community prevention. This is an especially relevant framework for…

This is an academic paper that examined how different types of messaging could change perceptions on disposing of unused opioid medications. Messaging including young children that pictorially demonstrate how to dispose of medications may have the greatest impact on medication disposal. Findings…

This is an academic paper that provides an overview of the current state of joint criminal justice and healthcare interventions to address the opioid crisis that have been evaluated in the peer-reviewed literature. Few programs were found although they were found to be effective, highlighting…

This is an academic paper that evaluates an intervention to deliver buprenorphine treatment in harm reduction organizations in New York City to those that are not seeking treatment. Although the study design was not rigorous, findings include increased organizational education on buprenorphine…

This academic paper addresses the fact that many currently employed interventions (prescriber guidelines, prescription monitoring programs, naloxone rescue) address the prevention of OUD or downstream complications but not treatment of the underlying disorder itself.

An OUD Cascade of…

This is an academic paper that describes the development of a survey that assesses community readiness to address prescription opioid misuse. Interventions can be ineffective in communities that are disinterested in change, so it is important to utilize interventions that are specific to the…

This is a peer-reviewed evaluation of six overdose training and naloxone distribution programs in the United States (Chicago, NYC, Baltimore, San Francisco, and New Mexico).

This report assesses drug checking programs in the United States and other countries in order to better understand them and inform potential opportunities for studying fentanyl drug checking as a harm reduction strategy. This review describes strategies used by drug checking programs and their…

This is a report from the Drug Policy Alliance that gives a history and overview of decriminalization of drug use in Portugal, its effects on treatment and harm reduction, and the impact on health outcomes and the criminal justice system.