Substance Use Disorder And Addiction
Governors have long been at the forefront of efforts to prevent and treat opioid use disorder and substance use disorder, working with stakeholders to mount a comprehensive response to the opioid epidemic.
Since 2012, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices has supported states in their efforts to help prevent and treat substance use disorder. Over the years, NGA Health and NGA Public Safety and Legal Counsel have jointly worked with states to identify and implement evidenced based best practices related to substance use disorder. NGA focus areas include but are not limited to:
- Sharing evidenced based prevention, treatment, and recovery strategies and programs;
- Using data and evaluation in policy development;
- Improving outcomes for targeted populations (justice-involved individuals, pregnant and parenting women, LGBTQIA+, people of color, and other historically underrepresented populations);
- Expanding access to medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD);
- Identifying trends in polysubstance use and identifying comprehensive responses to addiction;
- Addressing infectious diseases as a result of SUD/OUD;
- Strategies to improve the treatment of individuals with co-occurring disorders; and
- Increasing access to non-opioid management of chronic pain.
Meet Our Team
- Marianne Gibson, Program Director, Substance Use and Mental Health
- Lauren Dedon, Senior Legal Policy Advisor
- Maria Kearl, Policy Analyst, Public Safety and Legal Counsels
Projects
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Publications
Reducing Prescription Drug Abuse: Lessons Learned from an NGA Policy Academy
As part of the National Governors Association’s (NGA) ongoing effort to help states reduce prescription drug abuse, findings from the Prescription Drug Abuse Reduction Policy Academy were the focus of ...
Six Strategies for Reducing Prescription Drug Abuse
The abuse of prescription drugs is the fastest growing drug problem in the United States, and is the most common type of drug abuse after marijuana use among teens between ...
Substance Use Disorder And Addiction Library
NGA Opioid Summit for New Administrations
Washington, DC | April 8-9, 2019 AGENDA From April 8-9. NGA hosted the Opioid Summit for New Administrations in Washington, D.C. Public health and public safety officials from 33 states ...
NGA to Assist 13 States in Strengthening Policies Against Impaired Driving
Columbus, Ohio, Summit Kicks Off Technical Assistance to States To address the grim and growing toll of impaired driving, the National Governors Association is working with 13 states on efforts ...
Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf to Address Opioid Summit for New Gubernatorial Administrations
NGA Session to Highlight Successes and Lessons Learned from Pennsylvania to Inform Other States’ Opioid Response Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf will discuss his state’s nationally recognized efforts in addressing the ...
Governors Welcome Signing of Bipartisan Opioids Bill
WASHINGTON—The National Governors Association (NGA) applauds the president’s signing of H.R. 6, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, which provides much-needed additional resources to states and communities as they ...
Governors Applaud Passage of Bipartisan Opioids Bill
WASHINGTON—The National Governors Association (NGA) applauds the passage of H.R. 6, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, which provides much-needed additional resources to states and communities as they continue ...
Using Emergency Declarations to Address the Opioid Epidemic
The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) released a white paper, Using Emergency Declarations to Address the Opioid Epidemic: Lessons Learned from States. States have used emergency ...
Governors Applaud Bipartisan Cooperation on Opioids, Urge Further Action by Congress
WASHINGTON—Today the National Governors Association (NGA) Chair Governor Steve Bullock and Vice Chair Governor Larry Hogan sent a letter to Senate leadership urging continued bipartisan action to combat the opioid ...
Opioid Crisis Legislation
Letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer regarding passage of legislation geared toward combatting the opioid epidemic. DOWNLOAD THE LETTER Full text August 16, ...
Letter Urging Congressional Support on Combatting Opioids
Dear Speaker Ryan and Minority Leader Pelosi: On behalf of the nation’s governors, we write to thank you for your efforts to combat our country’s opioid crisis and urge continued ...
Resources
- Vital Signs on overdose disparities by race, ethnicity, and other important social determinants.
- DOSE Dashboard includes monthly and annual nonfatal overdose data from syndromic surveillance systems in 42 states, including the District of Columbia. This represents the most up to date data that CDC’s DOSE system has available and is updated shortly after new data are made available each month. The dashboard provides data visualization that responsively adjusts to your selection of drug, state, month/year, age, and sex.
- SUDORS Dashboard includes comprehensive drug overdose data from 2020, from funded jurisdictions that met inclusion criteria. Participating jurisdictions provided data from death certificates and medical examiner/coroner reports (including scene findings, autopsy reports, and full postmortem toxicology findings). The dashboard provides a downloadable dataset that includes annual counts, percentages, and rates of drug overdose deaths per 100,000 persons.
- Overdose Funding Snapshots are a useful repository for federal and state funding data. These pages contain a history of CDC’s overdose funding, major milestones, and an interactive map with clickable states featuring individual state investments and key examples of work therein.
- Patient- and County-level Trends in Nonfatal Opioid-involved Overdose Emergency Medical Services Encounters, 491 Counties in 21 States, January 2018–March 2022: This report leverages very timely data on non-fatal opioid-involved EMS encounters using the Biospatial data. In 491 counties across 21 states, the rate of EMS encounters for nonfatal opioid-involved overdoses increased, on average, 4% quarterly during January 2018–March 2022. EMS encounter data involving suspected nonfatal opioid-involved overdose complements ED data and allows for near real-time analysis, which can inform public health response and prevention efforts.
- CDC Feature: International Overdose Awareness Day: A Time to Remember and Take Action, CDC’s IOAD feature, presents vital overdose statistics, offers tips on recognizing signs of overdose, and provides informational resources.
- A qualitative assessment of circumstances surrounding drug overdose deaths during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, SUDORS Data Brief: The latest SUDORS data brief presents a qualitative assessment of circumstances surrounding drug overdose deaths during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably physical and mental impacts of the pandemic and missed touchpoints or opportunities for intervention. It is critical to expand SUD screening, link persons into care and treatment, retain persons in SUD treatment, and expand telehealth during emergencies to identify and provide services to persons at increased risk of overdose.