Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Portugal's Wildly Successful Decriminalization Experiment

    Since introducing both the decriminalization of a range of substances like heroin and cocaine and new harm-reduction strategies in 2001, Portugal has seen success in driving down HIV cases, overdoses, and needle sharing. The country attributes their progress to treating the issue of drug use as a human rights issue rather than a criminal one, because they consider external factors that contribute to addiction like gender, class, or race.

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  • Prizes for sobriety: As Washington meth use rises, this treatment is one of few that works

    Rewarding patients for sobriety greatly increases the likelihood for recovery. The approach of contingency management creates new behaviors through incentives instead of punishment. Through the Seattle Department of Veteran’s Affairs, patients in an addiction program who test negative get to draw a prize and accumulate rewards the longer they stay sober. This alternative form of treatment has proven effective in boosting patient participation—and success—in addiction programs at the Seattle VA.

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  • Overcoming an Epidemic: Opioids in Pennsylvania

    Across Pennsylvania, researchers, medical professionals, communities, and local governments are taking steps to address the opioid crisis. The epidemic that has swept across the country is being addressed at every level, including individual, family, and community. Responses include destigmatizing efforts like the Share Your Opioid Story project, school-based prevention education, drug court programming, medication assisted treatment, and training and awareness initiatives for medical professionals in urban and rural areas.

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  • How Colorado's rural education network went from teaching home economics to fighting the opioid epidemic

    Rural parts of America are often lacking in resources such as addiction treatment centers, but a project known as Strengthening Families is working to connect families in these areas with people that can help. In Colorado, extension agents – people who are well-respected and well-known within the areas – meet with community members on a regular basis to provide information about healthy lifestyles.

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  • Colorado to allow medical marijuana for pain instead of opioids

    States are looking for solutions to the nationwide opioid crisis, and marijuana may be one answer to that search. Two states, with a third on the way, are recommending medical marijuana in place of opioids to both reduce addiction and "normalize the conversation around the issue."

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  • Green Bay police carrying Narcan to combat opioid overdoses

    When an individual has overdosed on opioids, there is a very limited amount of time to save their life which is why law enforcement officers in Green Bay, Wisconsin are now carrying Narcan nasal spray. “It’s a lifesaver,” says Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith. “I think just about probably everybody that we gave Narcan to would probably have died had we not been there to give them the Narcan.”

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  • Wind River tribes re-establish program to help those battling drug and alcohol problems

    On the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, a wellness court is helping connect clients with resources that are tailored to cultural practices "in addition to drug or alcohol treatment and mental health help." The program relies on offering incentives for progress rather than punishments for missteps and has already shown success in small-scale implementations.

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  • With compassion and faith, a mayor leads his city through the opioid crisis

    Huntington, West Virginia has taken strides towards becoming a model for other cities on how to combat the opioid crisis after successfully optimizing on collaboration efforts. Coordinated by the mayor, joint efforts from local government, university researchers and the police department, worked to decrease rates of overdoses and increase community trust.

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  • Kettering center grows in fight to combat infant drug exposure

    For pregnant women impacted by the opioid epidemic, the lives of their infants are often affected if not given proper medical treatment after birth. Realizing this, a program in Kettering, Ohio that specifically works with this population has plans to expand their care after seeing success in its first year.

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  • Guiding Mothers and Babies Through the Opioid Crisis

    When the opioid crisis hit indigenous communities throughout North America, solutions that were working in urban areas, weren't available to these isolated, rural regions. To combat the crisis specifically as it relates to pregnancy, health care workers and community members from the tribes are working together to implement programs that connect newborns and their families with the medical assistance they need.

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