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. 

This issue brief describes the increasing incidence of deaths in local jails, often by suicide in the days immediately after arrest, and analyzes the underlying causes such as untreated substance use and mental health disorders. It recommends strategies to reduce these deaths, including better…

This academic paper conducted a review of existing literature describing new services and service modifications implemented by treatment and harm reduction programs serving people who use opioids, and also discusses implications for policy and practice. The authors set their literature review in…

This research report from Altarum calculates the overall economic cost of the opioid crisis as well as a breakdown of the overall costs and who is bearing the burden. The report estimates that the cost…

This paper outlines the impact of an educational program aimed towards decreasing stigma around opioid use disorder and medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). The authors trained health science graduate students to present on the opioid crisis and the usefulness of MOUD to community members…