Whether through prescription drug abuse or IV heroin, opiate addiction is at epidemic proportions

According to the CDC, between 2002 and 2013, the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled, and more than 8,200 people died in 2013. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSA) is also reporting rapidly rising heroin use. This is attributed to an epidemic of prescription opiate addiction that operates as a gateway drug for heroin.

Increasing prescriber use of prescription drug monitoring programs is critical to stopping the opioid crisis

As the opioid crisis continues to ravage communities across the United States, policymakers and public health officials are increasingly using new tools such as prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs)—state-based electronic databases that track the dispensing of certain controlled substances—to stem the misuse of prescription opioids and reduce overdose deaths.

Erie County, N.Y. Executive Mark Poloncarz says his jurisdiction was on its way to 550 overdose deaths in 2016. Here’s what the county government did to keep that from happening.

In 2015, overdoses related to opioids left 256 residents of Erie County, New York dead. And, at the rate things were going in the early months of last year, local officials were preparing themselves to see that number more than double.

Prescription drug misuse is second only to marijuana use as the nation's most commonly used illicit drug.1,2 Although prescription drug misuse is common in the United States, the majority of people (87.2 percent) who take prescription pain relievers do not misuse them.2 Understanding the prevalence of and reasons for prescription drug misuse has major public health implications. Policymakers can use this type of information to help inform their assessments of substance use prevention and treatment needs in their communities.

Opioid mortality rates may be 24% higher than the official stats.

It’s hard to solve a problem if you don’t understand its magnitude. And thanks to faulty data collection, America seems to have been greatly underestimating the severity of its opioid epidemic. According to a new study that corrected the rates, opioid mortality rates in 2014 were 24% higher than the official statistics. Heroin mortality rates were 22% higher.

What will it take to tackle our nation’s opioid epidemic, with more than 140 Americans dying every day from overdoses of prescription opioids and heroin? Money is important—federal and state governments are spending billions through Medicaid, the Substance Abuse Block Grants, and the recent 21st Century Cures Act. But funding is only part of the challenge. We also need more effective treatments and better ways to deliver services to those in need. In other words, we need a learning and innovation strategy to accompany and hone a treatment strategy.

Analytics could help us stem the opioid crisis. We just need to solve a few red tape and data problems.

New Jersey governor has opened his state’s first rehab facility for prisoners, cut insurance red tape and emphasized treatment over punishment

At 10am on a Thursday, Alan Oberman’s methadone clinic in Pleasantville, New Jersey, is bustling with people and life. Parents are yelling, babies crying, and smokers smoking. With the beach nearby and fresh-cut grass in the graveyard across the street, it feels like a neighborhood and smells like summer.

The United States is experiencing an epidemic of drug overdose deaths that cuts across economic, racial, and geographic boundaries. In the midst of this devastation, people are struggling to find ways to save the lives of their community members. While the “war on drugs” created tough enforcement policies that resulted in a bloated justice system, there is increasing momentum for a smarter and more compassionate approach to people who use drugs.

Medication Assisted Treatment in the Connecticut Department of Correction PowerPoint presentation.