SMART News

The arc of the opioid crisis is, by now, familiar to most people. Over-prescribing of legal opioids in the late '90s caused escalating numbers of people to develop use disorders. In the 2000s, new prescribing guidelines and controlled substance monitoring went into effect, and the legal supply of opioids rapidly reduced—so quickly that many people with opioid dependence turned to heroin to stave off withdrawal. But that only made the problem much worse. And then by the mid 2010s, fentanyl and its multitude of analogues hit the scene, and overdose deaths exponentially skyrocketed.

The University of Tennessee System is aligning key functions to grow its impact for Tennessee through the creation of a new division that brings together public service, government relations and economic development efforts.

Dr. Jennifer Tourville, the SMART Initiative's executive director is featured in the latest edition of the UT System magazine, Our Tennessee.

Read the full article to find out more about Jennifer, her colleagues and the ways they advocate for long-term care and support for those in recovery.

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Something really has changed over the past 20 years, especially in the last ten. Our culture has increasingly come to accept the idea that addiction is a chronic, treatable disease, not a moral failure.

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Ask just about any teacher or parent about what concerns them, and you’ll hear about vaping.

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In our last episode, we heard from Andi and Tanner Clements from Uplift Appalachia. They shared that churches and communities want to help with recovery, but most don’t feel equipped to take on the challenge. There’s also the persistent fear that they might get things wrong.

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You’ve been released from jail, where you spent some time for possession of narcotics. In jail, you got sober. And you were lucky: your jail had some programs that helped start you down a path of long-term mental and physical wellbeing. But you still have cravings. They gnaw at you as you return to the outside world.

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It is increasingly well understood that the criminal justice system is one of the most significant and valuable intervention points for getting people into recovery. When people are given access to the services they need to enter and maintain recovery, the success stories are common.

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West Virginia has been often described as ground zero of the opioid epidemic, largely because of Purdue Pharma's explicit targeting of the state for its aggressive marketing of OxyContin.