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Connecting individuals with OUD to treatment will be essential to solve the opioid crisis

• The use of MAT should be broadened in the general population, and accessibility should be increased.
• Nonenforcement police outreach should be promoted to connect individuals to treatment.
• Alternative treatment models should be explored to better serve individuals with OUD.
• Medication-assisted and other treatment models should be used in institutional and community corrections.
• The use of safe injection locations should be explored to facilitate incident response and provide treatment promotion opportunities.
• Same-day, low-barrier access to treatment with a medication-first model of care should be provided.
• Syringe services should be provided to reduce associated harms and create treatment intervention opportunities.

Lasting partnerships are key to the success of many of the recommended initiatives

• Syndromic surveillance or sentinel indicators should be used to recognize spikes in overdoses, new opioids, or emerging drug crises.

Care must be taken to protect officers from the physical dangers, mental stress, and trauma they face

• A trauma awareness early warning system should be created for law enforcement stress exposure.
• Mental health interventions should be provided for officers affected by the stresses of policing during the opioid crisis.

The ability of laboratories to respond to the epidemic is constrained

• Funding models should be developed to allow labs to be agile in responding to needs for new equipment, methods, and safety issues.
• The frequency and scope of drug screens in death investigations should be increased to identify novel opioids and effects.
• Data from rapid analysis of seized materials should be used to inform public health and law enforcement interventions.

The United States is grappling with an opioid crisis that continues to cause devastation from addiction and massive numbers of deaths from overdose. Law enforcement has a unique role in addressing this crisis because it is directly tasked with interacting with those affected by the crisis on a day-to-day basis.

On September 25 and 26, 2018, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), supported by the RAND Corporation in partnership with the Police Executive Research Forum, hosted an event that brought together subject-matter experts to identify and prioritize promising approaches for responding to the opioid crisis. After a series of panels and discussions, participants produced 13 high-priority needs, including strategies that were perceived to be ready for immediate implementation and those with remaining challenges that should inform the research agenda. The high-priority needs reflect an assessment by the group that one primary solution to the opioid crisis will be a focus on connecting individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) to the medications that can treat them. It will be important to pursue solutions that reduce barriers to the use of medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and expand access and funding for it. Connecting individuals with OUD to treatment will require effective collaborations among law enforcement officers, social workers, and other stakeholders. Finally, in addition to removing legal barriers, community and other stakeholder concerns will need to be addressed before high-priority harm-reduction approaches, such as safe injection sites or syringe exchanges, can be implemented.