Opioid promises

Select two policies that have been implemented in your state that are focused on reducing the opioid crisis or its consequences. These policies can be implemented by the state government, local governments, or other organizations (e.g., a police agency or a state health authority). They do not need affect the entire state. Broadly, you can think about policies as falling into the following categories: 1. Drug treatment • Trying to get existing opioid users to decrease or stop their use of drugs through more treatment or better access to treatment • There may also be related policies that try to make it easier for people to stop using drugs, such as providing more stable housing, employment opportunities, etc. 2. Drug prevention • Trying to convince people not using opioids to avoid them • Can be targeted at specific groups (e.g., school kids, at-risk youth), or generally raising awareness through advertising and public health promotion campaigns 3. Law enforcement/criminal justice • Trying to prevent the selling or use of opioids through laws and the enforcement of those laws. • Can include the introduction of new laws, extra policing, information sharing, forensic analysis, crackdowns. Policies can be targeted at sellers (at different levels) or at buyers. 4. Harm reduction • Focused on reducing the harmful effects of opioids, rather than the amounts of opioids consumed • Includes policies like improving naloxone access and use, needle and syringe programs, fentanyl test strips, protocols where ambulances attend overdose callouts but police do not, etc.