This is an academic paper that found that prescription opioid pill counts were higher for individuals in rural areas, suggesting that interventions tailored to drug safety and disposal, such as lock boxes and prescription drop-off boxes, may be more effective in rural areas. 

This is a report from the Center for Public Safety Initiatives that provides a catalog and summaries of programs, approaches, and interventions to respond to the opioid crisis. These entries include responses that are local, national, and international. 

This is a report from the American Medical Association which gives an overview on actions that the medical community has taken in combating the opioid epidemic, as well as data surrounding its impacts. The report also gives recommendations on further steps the medical community can take to decrease the number of opioid related mortalities. 

This study sought to understand important changes in co-occurring opioid and nonopioid drug use (i.e., polysubstance use) within the opioid crisis in the United States. Past-month use of at least 1 nonopioid drug occurred in nearly all participants (> 90%) in this study.

This paper emphasizes that viewing opioid trends in a “silo” ignores the fact that polysubstance use is ubiquitous among those with opioid use disorder and that significant changes in polysubstance use should be monitored alongside opioid trends.

This is an academic paper that gives an overview of the literature on prescriber education interventions to reduce opioid use and optimize prescribing in acute settings, such as primary care, surgical, and emergency department settings.

This is a federally-funded website from a collaboration of academic institutions that provides information on state laws relevant to the opioid crisis including laws on opioid prescribing, medications for opioid use disorder, naloxone, and syringe service programs.  

This toolkit from the National Safety Council discusses how community leaders can partner with their local healthcare community to inform prescribers on opioid prescribing. Information is provided about outreach activities to educate medical providers about safer opioid prescribing and alternatives to opioid pain medications.

This toolkit from the National Safety Council discusses the three types of prescription drug disposal programs (permanent collection sites, take-back events and mail-back programs) and provides guidance on the most appropriate option for a community to implement to reduce nonmedical opioid misuse. 

This report, written by researchers from the Institute for Behavioral Health, Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in collaboration with The Pew Charitable Trusts, describes eight evidence-based practices aimed at increasing prescriber utilization of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs).

This document informs that PDMPs can be utilized as a state-level tool to monitor and decrease opioid prescribing. 

This is a rural health policy brief from the CDC, as a companion to its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report article Illicit Drug Use, Illicit Drug Use Disorders, and Drug Overdose Deaths in Metropolitan and Non-metropolitan areas, providing policy recommendations for rural areas in addressing the opioid crisis related to increasing adherence to evidence-based prescribing practices, expanding access to medication-assisted treatment, and increasing the availability of overdose-reversing drugs such as naloxone. Case studies of community programs are highlighted in this document. 

This is a presentation from the National Latino Behavioral Health Association (author Mancini) that describes the scope of the opioid crisis in Hispanic/Latinx communities, discusses contextual barriers to service in this population, and makes actionable solutions and policy recommendations. A few successfully implemented prevention models are highlighted.  

This study projected the effect of lowering incident nonmedical prescription opioid use on the future trajectory of the opioid overdose crisis in the United States. In this paper, the prevention of prescription opioid misuse alone is projected to have a modest effect on lowering opioid overdose deaths in the near future, and a multipronged approach is needed to dramatically change the course of the opioid crisis.