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Controlled Substances and Illegal Drugs

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Report

Synthetic Opioids: An Unprecedented Crisis

Aug 28, 2019

The rise of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids is unlike any drug crisis in U.S. history. Limiting policy responses to existing approaches will likely be insufficient and may condemn many people to early deaths.
Report

How Is the Cannabis Market in Washington State Changing?

Aug 2, 2019

This report provides detailed information about state-legal cannabis production and sales in Washington, as well as insights about the total amount of THC obtained from legal and illegal sources.

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Journal Article

Journal Article

Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Among Pregnant Women Referred by Criminal Justice Agencies Before and After Medicaid Expansion: A Retrospective Study of Admissions to Treatment Centers in the United States

Pregnant women with OUD referred by criminal justice agencies between 1992 and 2017 were consistently less likely to receive evidence-based treatment than women referred through other sources.

Jun 30, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

How Increasing Medical Access to Opioids Contributes to the Opioid Epidemic: Evidence from Medicare Part D

The national growth in opioid supply explains 75% of the national rise in opioid treatment admissions and the diversion component is a critical driver of the opioid epidemic.

Jun 26, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Variation in the Degree of Concentration of Prescription Opioid Utilization Using Different Measures

A small share of prescription opioid users account for a large percent of total prescription opioid use.

Jun 26, 2020
Dissertation

Dissertation

Public Health and Safety Consequences of Liberalizing Drug Laws: Insights from Cannabis Legalization

Evaluates past policy changes surrounding national legalization of cannabis and identifies feasible policy responses for contemporary or anticipated issues.

Jun 15, 2020
Blog

A Message from Our President and CEO, America's Wealth Gap, Disinformation: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on doing more to address systemic inequalities and structural racism, paying the bills during COVID-19, America's growing wealth gap, and more.

Jun 5, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Consensus Guidelines and State Policies: The Gap Between Principle and Practice at the Intersection of Substance Use and Pregnancy

We review the change over time in state-level policy environments around substance use in pregnancy and contrast the policy response with the principles and guidance from professional societies and federal agencies.

Jun 3, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Treating Patients With Opioid Use Disorder in Their Homes: An Emerging Treatment Model

Treating OUD in the home via telehealth is expanding under COVID, but it is not clear what will happen post pandemic.

May 29, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Incidence and Treatment Costs of Severe Bacterial Infections Among People Who Inject Heroin: A Cohort Study in South London, England

A study examined the rates of hospitalisation or death related to severe bacteria infections among people who inject heroin in South London, England. The report compared these rates to the general population and calculated the cost of admissions.

May 19, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Settling the Score: Maximizing the Public Health Impact of Opioid Litigation

This Article responds to skeptics of a potential global opioid settlement agreement by proposing terms that would further public health goals.

May 12, 2020
Report

Countering Drug-Impaired Driving: Addressing the Complexities of Gathering and Presenting Evidence in Drug-Impaired Driving Cases

Driving under the influence of drugs is a serious and growing threat to public safety. Addressing these cases involves identifying impairment and presenting complex evidence in court. A panel of experts identified ways to address this challenge.

May 7, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Association of Medicare Part D Benzodiazepine Coverage Expansion With Changes in Fall-Related Injuries and Overdoses Among Medicare Advantage Beneficiaries

This study found an increase in the rate of overdose after Medicare Part D coverage began to include benzodiazepines among adults aged 65 to 69 years and 80 years or older and an increase in the rate of fall-related injury in adults 80 years or older.

May 5, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Abuses of FDA Regulatory Procedures: The Case of Suboxone

In the profitable buprenorphine market, pharmaceutical manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser exploited various Food and Drug Administration regulatory procedures to impede entry of generic competitors and maintain elevated prices.

Apr 29, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Four States With Robust Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs Reduced Opioid Dosages

State-level prescription drug monitoring programs that incorporate robust design features can significantly reduce the proportion of commercially insured adults who receive opioid prescriptions as well as the strength of those prescriptions.

Apr 29, 2020
Journal Article

An Epidemic in the Midst of a Pandemic: Opioid Use Disorder and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic strikes at a moment when our national response to the opioid crisis was beginning to coalesce. COVID-19 threatens to dramatically overshadow and reverse this progress.

Apr 29, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

The Association of State Opioid Misuse Prevention Policies With Patient- and Provider-Related Outcomes: A Scoping Review

This review reveals a growing literature on the effects of certain state opioid misuse prevention policies, but persistent gaps in evidence on other prevalent state policies remain.

Apr 29, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Association of State Opioid Duration Limits With Postoperative Opioid Prescribing

Early evidence suggests that opioid duration limits had a variable association with postoperative opioid prescribing and should only be part of a larger, multifaceted effort to reduce excessive postoperative opioid prescribing.

Apr 29, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Generic Drug Policy and Suboxone to Treat Opioid Use Disorder

In this article, the authors use the case of Suboxone to demonstrate egregious anti-competitive practices that delay generic entry, estimate the costs of these delays to the public, and suggest legislative and regulatory reforms to prevent these practices going forward.

Apr 28, 2020
Commentary

Beyond Bans: How Cannabis Policy Reform Can Reduce Vaping-Related Illnesses

Policymakers can wield a multitude of tools to address vaping-related illness. Cannabis policy reform is one option. But policymakers may face challenges in balancing comprehensive regulatory design that promotes product safety with its potential to bolster the illegal and unregulated market.

Mar 27, 2020
Commentary

Want to Know If a New Drug Crisis Is Growing? Check the Wastewater

Few people foresaw how quickly fentanyl would displace heroin, doubling or tripling opioid overdose deaths in some pockets of the United States from 2013 to 2017. But we could have been warned—if only we'd checked our wastewater.

Mar 26, 2020
Journal Article

Association Between Opioid Prescribing in Medicare and Pharmaceutical Company Gifts by Physician Specialty

The value of opioid-related gifts given to physicians varies substantially by provider specialty, as does the relationship between payment amounts and prescriber behavior in the following year.

Mar 13, 2020

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