(Podcast) What’s Happening with the Opioid Abatement Settlements?

New podcast episode: What's happening with the opioid settlements?

Starting with the multiple guilty pleas from Purdue Pharma in 2020, thousands of lawsuits across the country have lead to a series of settlements from numerous pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors for their role in the opioid crisis. From just the first and second wave of settlements with Cardinal Health, Janssen,

(Podcast) Organizational Failure: How Bad Business Caused the Opioid Crisis

New podcast episode: Organizational failure; how bad business caused the opioid crisis

Purdue Pharma. Johnson and Johnson. CVS. Walgreens. I could keep going. Drug manufacturers and distributors have rightly come under scrutiny in light of the opioid abatement settlements. As these companies start paying hundreds of millions of dollars out across the country, in an effort to try to make up for

New Policy Brief: The Need for Point-of-Care Testing of All Illicit Substances

A drug test cup.

KEY POINTS An estimated 107,477 overdose deaths occurred in the United States within the last year, with about 4,000 of those deaths being Tennesseans. Over 80 percent of these deaths are attributable to opioids such as fentanyl, for which there does not exist tests approved by the Food and Drug

(Podcast) What does “primary” prevention for SUD look like?

Everyone who’s gone to elementary school in the last fifty years has had some sort of “Just Say No” sessions and activities; we’re all familiar with this type of informational prevention. But there is much more to the picture. My guest this month is Stephanie Strutner, CEO of the Prevention

Guest column: Harm reduction is key to recovery, preventing overdose deaths

A syringe wrapped in sterile packaging.

Read the full article at Knox News. More recovery centers have opened, telehealth use has exploded, drug courts and treatment-oriented incarceration alternatives continue to proliferate, and Narcan is more available than ever before. But overdose deaths continue to climb, and are now in fact the leading cause of death for

(Podcast) Methamphetamine and the Overdose Crisis

SMART Policy Podcast: Meth's Role in the Overdose Crisis.

We are now in the fourth wave of the overdose crisis. Fentanyl is the still the most common drug involved in these deaths, but stimulants, primarily methamphetamine, is increasingly prevalent. In fact, the vast majority of all overdose deaths now involve multiple drugs. Meth, cocaine, heroin; worse still, newer contaminants

(Podcast) The New CDC Guidelines: Correcting Past Mistakes

SMART Policy Podcast: New CDC Prescription Guidelines: Correcting Past Mistakes, featuring Clay Jackson, MD.

At the end of 2022, the CDC released new prescribing guideline for opioids, replacing their last set from 2016. Excluding patients with cancer and other terminal illnesses, this guideline strongly emphasizes alternatives to opioids and urges extreme caution for physicians considering new opioid prescriptions, while also recommending how to appropriately

Naloxone Access Update: Over-the-counter Narcan expected in March, 2023

Narcan nasal spray in the package.

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. has announced that the FDA has fast-tracked their application for an over-the-counter (OTC) version of their trademarked Narcan nasal spray, and are anticipating approval as early as March 29th, 2023. A week prior, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf issued an open call for such applications, promising to assign

New Policy Brief: Harm Reduction

A syringe in a sterile package.

Key Points Harm reduction is a policy philosophy aimed at minimizing negative health outcomes by embracing compassion and rejecting stigma. It is often described as “meeting people where they are.” The core of harm reduction is acknowledging the lethality of modern drugs such as fentanyl. If you keep the person

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