DEA Public Safety Alert

The Drug Enforcement Administration has issued a Public Safety Alert warning Americans of the alarming increase in the lethality and availability of fake prescription pills containing fentanyl and methamphetamine. Learn more.

General

• FDA guidance: Where and How to Dispose of Unused Medicines.
• Never Use Alone is a harm-reduction initiative designed to provide a life-saving point of contact for people who use drugs, so that there is someone to help in the event of an overdose. People planning to use can call 800-484-3731 and someone from the initiative stays on the line with the person to make sure they are OK. If there is no response after they use drugs, someone calls EMS.
• SMI Adviser is a free program funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The mission is to advance the use of a person-centered approach to care that ensures people who have serious mental illness (SMI), including substance use disorders, find the treatment and support they need.
• CDC document: Evidence-Based Strategies for Preventing Opioid Overdose: What’s Working in the United States.
• Together for Resilient Youth (TRY) is a Durham, NC-based organization that aims to prevent substance use among youth by reducing community risk factors through education, mobilization and collaborative action.
• SAMHSA updated Opioid Overdose Prevention Toolkit
• Prevent Opioid Abuse and Addiction: Information and strategies from the US Department of Health and Human Services
• Easy To Read Drug Facts from the National Institute on Drug Abuse
• This is America on drugs: A visual guide: CNN
• Facing Addiction in America: Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health
• How Opioids Kill – Scientific American
• An Alarming Number of People Don’t Know the Signs of Prescription-Drug Abuse, New York Magazine magazine article

Naloxone

• The North Carolina Naloxone Distribution Toolkit was developed to guide local health departments, coalitions and community organizations through the process of implementing a distribution standing order.
• How to Use NARCAN (naloxone HCl) Nasal Spray
• Evzio Auto-Injector Demo
• Quick-Learn Lesson: Naloxone Administration (15-20 minute web-based training via CDC LEARN)
• Injectable Naloxone Training Video

Recovery

• Fighting the stigma of opioid addiction with stories of recovery | PBS NewsHour
• Life after opioid addiction: three survivors tell how they got clean | US news | The Guardian
• Watch “Reversing the Stigma” a documentary that profiles multiple people in various stages of recovery, who share their stories and experiences.
• Advocates for Opioid Recovery
• Three noteworthy medication-assisted treatment (MAT) studies | Addiction & Recovery News
• How to write about addiction without promoting stigma and bias: 4 tips for journalists

The Opioid Crisis in North Carolina

• The More Powerful NC campaign aims to raise awareness of the scope and danger of the opioid crisis, and call North Carolinians to action.
• The Opioid Crisis: Substance Use and Harm Reduction in North Carolina; NC Medical Journal. May-June 2018
• NCDHHS Opioid Action Plan Data Dashboard
• Searching for a fix: WRAL Documentary on opioid epidemic:WRAL.com
• Confronting the Opioid Epidemic in North Carolina
• Opioid and heroin crisis plagues North Carolina | Charlotte Observer
• Fighting the Opioid Epidemic | Magazine | Campbell University
• The Opioid Epidemic: Hooked | Cabarrus Magazine
• N.C. opioid crisis fueled by more prescriptions and pills | Charlotte Observer
• State Leaders Navigate The Politics Of The Opioid Crisis | WUNC

Pharmacists

• The Role of Pharmacists in the Opioid Epidemic (North Carolina Medical Journal): Comments on and examine how pharmacists are working together with the health care team and community to address the opioid crisis.
• Pharmacists on the Front Lines (CDC brochure): Describes actions pharmacists can take against the opioid epidemic.
• Orienting patients to greater opioid safety: models of community pharmacy-based naloxone

Providers

• NEW: Evidence has shown that there is a significant association between smoking and pain, and smokers tend to have a higher intensity of pain compared to non-smokers, putting them at higher risk of opioid misuse/dependency.  The Smoking Cessation Research Center recommends that addressing tobacco use with patients being treated for pain may be useful in reducing pain, as well as reducing the need for pain medication.
• TIP 63: Medications for Opioid Use Disorder is a SAMHSA treatment improvement protocol (TIP) that reviews the use of the three Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications used to treat opioid use disorder (OUD)—methadone, naltrexone, and buprenorphine—and the other strategies and services needed to support recovery for people with OUD (free PDF download).
• Helping ‘Them’: Our Role in Recovery From Opioid Dependence
• Project Lazarus Providers’ Toolkit (PDF): Resource to assist medical care providers throughout North Carolina in managing patients with chronic pain.
• Patients with Addiction Need Treatment – Not Stigma: American Society of Addiction Medicine article
• Helping Patients With Opioid Addiction: Dentistry Today