Opioids: What's Working.

AuthorWidgery, Amber

State lawmakers are alt too familiar with the human costs and policy challenges associated with opioid misuse. They also recognize the need for collaboration between health, criminal justice and other professionals whose daily work is touched by the epidemic and who can aid in preventing overdoses.

Lawmakers have ted efforts to forge new partnerships between criminal justice and health care stakeholders and have encouraged evidence-based practices. Recent legislation has focused on intervening at the front end of the justice system by rerouting people toward community-based treatment and other supports before they are arrested and by increasing access to treatment for people involved in the system.

Recent research has shown the effectiveness of these collaborations in reducing overdose deaths. A new publication from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Evidence-Based Strategies for Preventing Opioid Overdose: What's Working in the United States," identified 10 best practices, some of which directly involve collaboration between public health and public safety partners.

Access to naloxone, the opioid-overdose antidote, is the focus of two of the strategies. Putting naloxone into the hands of individuals reentering the community after a period of incarceration can help mitigate their heightened risk of overdose. Providing the antidote to people likely to witness or respond to an overdose, such as law enforcement officers, also has been shown to save lives. Every state has a naloxone access law, and by the end of 2016 it was estimated that more than 1,200 law enforcement agencies had naloxone programs.

Bystanders who witness an overdose often have been using opioids themselves and may...

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