No matter how carefully the rest of a legal epidemiology study is designed and conducted, if the legal data are not transparent and rigorous, the study’s findings must be considered unreliable. Here are three important factors to consider when assessing legal data sources.
As we mark International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31, celebrating people who are transgender and their contributions to our communities, the day also serves as an opportunity to raise awareness of the ongoing discrimination faced by trans people, particularly in the form of legislation in the United States.
Americans are deeply in debt. In the fourth quarter of 2023, total household debt increased by $212 billion to reach $17.5 trillion, according to a report by the Center for Microeconomic Data.
We created a special set of valentines for you to share with all those you care about. Feel free to download and share these legal epi valentines. Tag us if you post on social media! ❤️
Addressing the opioid crisis cannot stop at providing better access to treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), expanding and enhancing harm reduction efforts, and reimagining the role of law enforcement, as explored previously in this blog series. The response must go further to make treatment and harm reduction more effective, by acknowledging the opioid epidemic as a reflection of the conditions of the whole society, identifying those conditions, and addressing them head-on. A whole-person response to OUD and other substance use disorders needs a well-coordinated whole-of-government response to address myriad societal issues that are critical to effective drug treatment, including, but not limited to, housing, education, economic development, and tax policy.
One of the key tools for combatting the opioid overdose epidemic, which claimed more than 100,000 lives in the last year, is the use of medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). MOUD is a treatment approach that uses medications to relieve withdrawal systems or, in the event of a relapse, block the effects of opioids. MOUD is a vital tool to help individuals dealing with opioid use disorder (OUD) manage their recovery, and is considered the gold standard for treatment.
Harm reduction in the context of the opioid crisis is focused on preventing overdose and infectious disease transmission by working with people who use drugs without moral judgment. Far too often, the public health imperative of harm reduction is blocked by federal policy, state laws, and other structural barriers anchored in the “war on drugs” that reduce the effectiveness of harm reduction efforts. To maximize the potential of harm reduction requires a whole-of-government approach, involving coordination across levels of government.
There is a well-established whole of government response to drug policing centered around the “war on drugs.” However, the existing response is largely built on flawed policies that have resulted in mass incarceration, structural racism, and lagging improvements in treatment and harm reduction related to the opioid crisis. Policy changes must be considered to replace acknowledged failures and reimagine the whole of government response to drug policing.
