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Articles on Opioid use disorder

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Approaching the opioid crisis from a public health perspective includes massively increasing access to care and treatment for patients experiencing substance use disorder. (Shutterstock)

The roots of the North American opioid crisis, and 3 key strategies for stopping it

There were more than 100,000 opioid-related deaths in North America in 2022. How the crisis grew to such proportions, and three potential paths to ending it.
A nurse dispenses liquid Methadose, an FDA-approved medication that helps people addicted to opioids. Whitney Hayward/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

Myths about will power and moral weakness keep people with opioid use disorder from receiving effective medications like methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone

Prescription medications can help people with opioid use disorder avoid the risks of relapse and overdose. But stigma based on misperceptions about addiction limits their use.
According to Oregon law, possessing a small amount of drugs for personal consumption is now a civil – rather than criminal – offense. Peter Dazeley via Getty

Oregon just decriminalized all drugs – here’s why voters passed this groundbreaking reform

Possessing heroin, cocaine, meth and other drugs for personal use is no longer a criminal offense in Oregon. The idea is to get people with problem drug use help, not punishment.
A man injects drugs in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Feb. 6, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Without safe injection sites, more opioid users will die

In the midst of a public health crisis, with increasing rates of death from opioid overdose, the Ontario government is clawing back life-saving measures.

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