ASTHO, with support from CDC’s Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) cooperative agreement, developed an interactive resource visualizing state and territorial laws that support harm reduction activities as of January 1, 2023. This report highlights the public health importance of three harm reduction policies and practices to reduce overdoses: Facilitating community distribution of naloxone; Facilitating community distribution of fentanyl test strips (FTS); Overdose prevention centers.
Population: General Audiences
Legal Mapping of Harm Reduction Laws and Overdose Prevention Center Legislation
Harm Reduction Laws in the United States
This brief is designed to help individuals and organizations better understand how the legal landscape in their state may impact access to harm reduction services and supplies, including overdose Good Samaritan laws, which provide limited protection from criminal sanctions to encourage people to call for help in an overdose emergency. Specifically, it covers laws related to syringe possession and distribution, naloxone access, statewide naloxone standing orders, and overdose Good Samaritan overdose protections in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Use the embedded hyperlink to navigate to New York!
Webinar – R Street Institute – Is Over the Counter Enough? Getting Naloxone to the People Who Need It Most
In this panel, experts in pharmacy, policy and harm reduction will help answer the question “Is over-the-counter naloxone enough to stop the overdose crisis?” They will discuss what intranasal naloxone’s OTC status does and does not do, as well as important next steps for regulators and policymakers working to curb overdose deaths in their communities and across the country.
Webinar – Distributing Low Barrier Naloxone in Emergency Departments
Emergency departments can learn how to build a simple, efficient, and effective model of dispensing naloxone from the ground up in this free, archived 1-hour webinar with multiple guest speakers in collaboration with National Harm Reduction Coalition.
Preventing opioid overdose with peer-administered naloxone: findings from a rural state
Findings support the feasibility of naloxone distribution to peer opioid and heroin users and provide recommendations for policy improvement, including effective and well-advertised Good Samaritan laws and links to treatment for opioid use disorder.
Comparing Projected Fatal Overdose Outcomes and Costs of Strategies to Expand Community-Based Distribution of Naloxone in Rhode Island
In this decision analytical model study evaluating the distribution of 10 000 additional naloxone kits annually in Rhode Island, the strategy focusing on distribution of naloxone according to geographic need to people who inject drugs resulted in the best outcomes at the lowest cost, averting an estimated 25.3% of opioid overdose deaths at an incremental cost of $27 312 per opioid overdose death averted.
Effects of naloxone: A post-overdose care plan
Being revived through naloxone, while lifesaving, is usually a very unpleasant experience for both the overdosed individuals and the individual who administers naloxone. This resource spells out common side effects of naloxone use on opioid-dependent people and provides a list of suggested items useful for post-overdose care.
NACo Opioid Solutions Strategy Brief: Naloxone to Reverse Opioid Overdose
This strategy brief shares basic evidence of naloxone effectiveness and also highlights innovative methods for distribution.
RTI – Optimizing naloxone distribution to prevent opioid overdose fatalities
The objective of this study was to pilot test a multi-component implementation strategy-the systems analysis and improvement approach for naloxone (SAIA-Naloxone) which included (1) analyzing program data to identify gaps in the naloxone delivery cascade, (2) flow mapping to identify causes of attrition and brainstorm programmatic changes for improvement, and (3) conducting continuous quality improvement to test and assess whether modifications improve the cascade.
