Corrigendum to Longitudinal Study on Deterrent Effect of Drug-Induced Homicide Law on Opioid-Related Mortality Across 92 Counties and the District of Columbia in the U.S.

• Published date: 01 October 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00220426221121697
• Date: 01 October 2023
• Subject Matter: Corrigendum

Corrigendum

Journal of Drug Issues

2023, Vol. 53(4) 670

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00220426221121697

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Corrigendum to Longitudinal

Study on Deterrent Effect of

Drug-Induced Homicide Law on

Opioid-Related Mortality

Across 92 Counties and the

District of Columbia in the U.S.

Lee, Y., Choi, S. W., & Lee, J. (2022). Longitudinal study on deterrent effect of drug-induced

homicide law on opioid-related mortality across 92 counties and the district of Columbia. Journal

of Drug Issues,52(2), 131–143. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220426211037614

The authors of the above referenced article would like to add notes of corrigendum to the article in

the spirit of more transparency in their methodology as well as the purpose of their research study.

Specif‌ically, they have identif‌ied three areas of further clarif‌ication as:

1. Some states have enacted an earlier version of DIHL back in 1980s or 1990s, long before a

signif‌icant rise in opioid overdose across the U.S. in 2010s. Several of those states, in-

cluding, but not limited to, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, North

Carolina, Washington, and District of Columbia, have amended their DIHL in order to

better address the opioid crisis. Since the general purpose of this study was to examine the

relevant policies and practices of opioid-related deaths, we operationalized the DIHL

effective date as when those amendments explicitly referenced opioids as controlled

substances or included specif‌ications to minimum and maximum penalty.

2. Our study included 92 counties in 10 states and District of Columbia for which a reliable

age-adjusted opioid-related death rate during the study period was available. Other

counties in those states were excluded for the absence of reliable data due largely to a small

number of fatal overdose cases.

3. Opioid-related death was operationalized as all drug overdose deaths with specif‌ic opioid

codes (T40.0, T40.1, T40.2, T40.3, T40.4, T40.6) among unintentional, suicide, homicide,

or undetermined intent deaths (X40-X44, X60-X64, X85, Y10-Y14).