A Florida law restricting the quantity of opioids a doctor can prescribe for acute pain to three days’ worth may have led to overall reductions in opioids dispensed to patients in the state, says a new study.

Illinois Governor Pritzker signed Executive Order 2020-02 to establish the Governor's Opioid Overdose Prevention and Recovery Steering Committee. Illinois is also dedicating $4.1 million state dollars to expand recovery and prevention services for individuals with opioid use disorder in the state.

The opioid epidemic cost the U.S. economy at least $631 billion from 2015 to 2018, according to a Society of Actuaries’ (SOA) analysis of non-medical opioid use.

The National Institutes of Health will award 12 grants to form the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) to support research on quality addiction treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) in criminal justice settings nationwide. 

Drug overdose deaths in the United States declined 5.1% in 2018, according to data by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.

Globally, 35 million people are estimated to suffer from drug use disorders and who require treatment services, according to the latest World Drug Report, by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The Opioid Detection Challenge, a $1.55 million USD global prize competition, has been launched by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), in collaboration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).

A study from investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Institute for Technology Assessment projects that the opioid overdose epidemic in the U.S. is likely to increase in coming years.