Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-09T07:09:16.438Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

State Approaches to Addressing the Overdose Epidemic: Public Health Focus Needed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Abstract

States have implemented a variety of legal and policy approaches to address the overdose epidemic. Some approaches, like increasing access to naloxone and connecting overdose survivors with evidence-based treatment, have a strong public health foundation and a compelling evidence base. Others, like increasing reliance on punitive criminal justice approaches, have neither. This article examines law and policy changes that are likely to be effective in reducing overdose-related harm as well as those that are likely to increase it.

Type
Symposium Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

National Center for Health Statistics, “Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 1999-2017,” NCHS Data Brief No. 329 (November 2018); A. Azar, Renewal of Determination That a Public Health Emergency Exists,” 2019.Google Scholar
Davis, C. S., “The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act — What Will It Mean for the Opioid-Overdose Crisis?” New England Journal of Medicine 380, no. 1 (2019): 3-5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, T. C., Martin, E. G., Bowman, S. E., Mann, M. R., and Beletsky, L., “Life after the Ban: An Assessment of Us Syringe Exchange Programs' Attitudes about and Early Experiences with Federal Funding,” American Journal of Public Health 102, no. 5 (May 2012): e9-16; C. S. Davis and D. Carr, “Legal Changes to Increase Access to Naloxone for Opioid Overdose Reversal in the United States,” Drug Alcohol Depend 157 (2015): 112-120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaSalle, L., “An Overdose Death Is Not Murder: Why Drug Induced Homicide Laws Are Counterproductive and Inhumane,” Drug Policy Alliance (2017).Google Scholar
Friedman, S. R., Pouget, E. R., Chatterjee, S., Cleland, C. M., Tempalski, B., Brady, J. E., and Cooper, H. L., “Drug Arrests and Injection Drug Deterrence,” American Journal of Public Health 101, no. 2 (2011): 344-349; V. Wright, Deterrence in Criminal Justice: Evaluating Certainty vs. Severity of Punishment (Washington, D.C.: The Sentencing Project, 2010).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latimore, A. D. and Bergstein, R. S., “‘Caught with a Body’ yet Protected by Law? Calling 911 for Opioid Overdose in the Context of the Good Samaritan Law,” International Journal of Drug Policy 50 (2017): 82-89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClellan, C., Lambdin, B. H., Ali, M. M., Mutter, R., Davis, C. S., Wheeler, E. et al., “Opioid-Overdose Laws Association with Opioid Use and Overdose Mortality,” Addictive Behaviors 86 (2018): 90-95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beletsky, L., “America's Favorite Antidote: Drug-Induced Homicide in the Age of the Overdose Crisis,” Utah Law Review (in press).Google Scholar
Larochelle, M. R., Bernson, D., Land, T., Stopka, T. J., Wang, N., Xuan, Z., Bagley, S. M., Liebschutz, J. M., and Walley, A. Y., “Medication for Opioid Use Disorder after Nonfatal Opioid Overdose and Association with Mortality: A Cohort Study,” Annals of Internal Medicine (2018).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Health in Justice Action Lab, “Involuntary Commitment for Substance Users,” 2018.Google Scholar
Becker, D., “It's a Prison. It's Punishing Addicts': Calls to Reform Civil Commitment Increase,” WBUR, December 14, 2018.Google Scholar
Bhalla, I. P., Cohen, N., Haupt, C. E., Stith, K., and Zhong, R., “The Role of Civil Commitment in the Opioid Crisis,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 46, no. 2 (2018): 343-350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massachusetts Department of Health, “Chapter 55 Overdose Report,” 2017; Christopher, P., Anderson, B., and Stein, M. D., “Civil Commitment Experiences among Opioid Users,” Drug Alcohol Depend 193 (2018): 137-141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Werb, D., Kamarulzaman, A., Meacham, M. C., Rafful, C., Fischer, B., Strathdee, S. A., and Wood, E., “The Effectiveness of Compulsory Drug Treatment: A Systematic Review,” International Journal of Drug Policy 28 (2016): 1-9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binswanger, I. A., Blatchford, P. J., Mueller, S. R., and Stern, M. F., “Mortality after Prison Release: Opioid Overdose and Other Causes of Death, Risk Factors, and Time Trends from 1999 to 2009,” Annals of Internal Medicine 159, no. 9 (2013): 592-600.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhode Island Governor's Overdose Prevention and Intervention Task Force, “Rhode Island's Strategic Plan on Addiction and Overdose: Four Strategies to Alter the Course of an Epidemic,” Providence, RI, 2015.Google Scholar
Darke, S., Kaye, S., and Finlay-Jones, R., “Drug Use and Injection Risk-Taking among Prison Methadone Maintenance Patients,” Addiction 93, no. 8 (1998): 1169-75; K. A. Dolan, J. Shearer, B. White, J. Zhou, J. Kaldor, and A. D. Wodak, “Four-Year Follow-up of Imprisoned Male Heroin Users and Methadone Treatment: Mortality, Re-Incarceration and Hepatitis C Infection,” Addiction 100, no. 6 (2005): 820-828.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, T. C., Clarke, J., Brinkley-Rubinstein, L., Marshall, B. D. L., Alexander-Scott, N., Boss, R., and Rich, J. D., “Postincarceration Fatal Overdoses after Implementing Medications for Addiction Treatment in a Statewide Correctional System,” JAMA Psychiatry 75, no. 4 (2018): 405-407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartzapfel, B., “When Going to Jail Means Giving Up the Meds That Saved Your Life,” The Marshall Project, 2019.Google Scholar