The Social and Community Consequences of the Opioid Epidemic

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162231157569
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Date: 01 September 2022

ANNALS, AAPSS, 703, September 2022 7

DOI: 10.1177/00027162231157569

The Social and

Community

Consequences

of the Opioid

Epidemic

By

RAJEEV DAROLIA

and

COLLEEN HEFLIN

1157569ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYSOCIAL AND COMMUNITY CONSEQUENCES OF THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC

research-article2023

We provide a brief orientation to the articles that com-

prise this volume, which is an effort to understand the

consequences of the opioid epidemic in a variety of

societal and community domains. These domains

include child welfare, living arrangements, education,

food insecurity, housing, and public budgets, and they

are often paid scant attention compared to research

that focuses on the direct effects of opioid use. We give

an overview of the articles that comprise this volume

and discuss the ways in which they contribute new

empirical insights on the consequences of the opioid

crisis in the U.S. and Canada. We conclude with

thoughts on the challenges inherent in this work,

insights about how this volume of research might help

us understand the broader reach of the epidemic, and

how it helps in the development of prosocial public

policies.

Keywords: opioids; education; food insecurity; child

welfare; homelessness

The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated

much of the attention our nation has paid

to public health in the past few years, yet the

opioid epidemic has continued to rage on in the

U.S. and Canada. The number of opioid-

involved overdose deaths markedly grew over

the 20 years leading up to the COVID-19 pan-

demic: in 2019, almost 50,000 people died from

an opioid overdose in the U.S., almost sixfold

the level from 2000.1 In 2020, the number of

Correspondence: Rajeev.Darolia@uky.edu

Rajeev Darolia (rajeev.darolia@uky.edu) is the Wendell

H. Ford Professor of Public Policy, professor of public

policy and economics, associate dean for research of the

Graduate School, and associate director for the Center

for Poverty Research at the University of Kentucky.

Colleen Heflin (cmheflin@syr.edu) is the chair and pro-

fessor of public administration and international affairs,

associate dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and

Public Affairs, and senior research associate in the

Center for Policy Research and the Lerner Center for

Public Health Promotion at Syracuse University.