Below are the most recent reports and articles from the RAND Drug Policy Research Center. Please visit our RAND Topics pages for a complete research archive on these and other drug policy-related research topics.
RAND Topic Pages: Substance Abuse TreatmentThe growing use of medication treatment for opioid use disorder in the West Virginia Medicaid expansion population provides an opportunity to reduce overdose deaths.
Although many states have passed some type of law affecting naloxone availability, only laws allowing direct dispensing by pharmacists appear to be useful. Communities in which access to naloxone is improved should prepare for increases in nonfatal overdoses and link these individuals to effective treatment.
RAND researchers analyzed the formulas for distributing funds to states under three block grants for services related to mental health, substance abuse, and homelessness (unchanged since 1992) to determine whether they should be modified.
This study highlights factors that affect Community Health Centers' ability to reduce infectious disease transmission related to the opioid epidemic. The emphasis is on rural areas, which have suffered disproportionately from the opioid epidemic and lack resources to address the complex social and medical issues related to opioid use, opioid use disorder, and risk for infectious diseases.
To realize the gains envisioned by recent legislation, the Administration and Congress should prioritize additional funding to modernize our child welfare system to meet the unique needs of families affected by substance misuse.
Most of the publicly-funded SUD-treatment programs in this study reported delivering prevention and early-intervention services for children of their adult clients.
The objectives of this study were to describe quality of care for unhealthy alcohol use among patients visiting primary care settings and to determine whether better quality of alcohol care was linked to reduced alcohol consumption 6 months later.
Substance use prevention efforts that seek to counter peer pressures should begin prior to middle school and span high school, and address the role of peer and family environments.
The formulas for distributing funds to states under three block grants (the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant, the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant, and the Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness program) have not been updated since 1992. RAND researchers conducted this congressionally mandated study to determine whether the formulas should be modified.
LGB opioid disparities varied significantly by sexual identity &gender. All LGB subgroups had elevated lifetime pain reliever misuse. Bisexual women uniquely had elevated OUD rates and lifetime injection heroin use.
Rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), which occurs in newborns who were exposed to opioids in the womb, have increased dramatically over the past decade. This web-based tool displays the rates of NAS from 2009 to 2015 by county in eight states: Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington.
Evaluates a large-scale effort to significantly increase certainty and celerity of sanction for an offense while keeping severity low.
This working paper is part of a series of reports assessing the evidence on and arguments made about heroin-assisted treatment and supervised consumption sites and examining some of the issues associated with implementing them in the United States.
Reflecting a comprehensive VA effort to improve pain management, in 2007 fewer veterans received high doses of opioids and more veterans received non-opioid pain therapies, naloxone, and treatment for substance use disorders.
This working paper is part of a series of reports assessing the evidence on and arguments made about heroin-assisted treatment and supervised consumption sites and examining some of the issues associated with implementing them in the United States.
Online personalized normative feedback (PNF) interventions for alcohol use may be particularly effective for people who have recently experienced an alcohol-induced blackout.
Given the severity of the opioid crisis in the United States, there is urgency to evaluate tools that might reduce its impact and save lives. In this mixed-methods report, the authors assess evidence on and arguments made about heroin-assisted treatment and supervised consumption sites and examine some of the issues associated with implementing them in the United States.
This report highlights key research questions and identifies opportunities to use existing data sources and implement data-linking strategies that can support the HHS five point strategy to combat the opioid crisis.
Adolescents who use vaping products are more likely to smoke cigarettes and to increase their use of both products over time.
States that provide legal access to marijuana through dispensaries experience lower treatment admissions for addiction to pain medication.
