The opioid crisis is affecting communities across the country. Deaths from drug overdose have risen steadily over the past two decades and have become the leading cause of injury death in the United States.  Prescription drugs, especially opioid analgesics — a class of prescription drugs such as hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine and methadone used to treat […]

Heroin use and deaths related to prescription opioid use are on the rise in the U.S. As a result, overdose treatments like naloxone, which can help revive people in the throes of an opioid overdose, are attracting increased interest.  A number of community-based harm reduction organizations are working to prevent overdose deaths through public education […]

Sunday, August 31st is Overdose Awareness Day.  In recognition of this day we would like to turn our attention to the faces behind the overdose statistics. You have no doubt heard that in 2011 more Americans died every day from drug overdoses than from traffic crashes.  And that half of those overdoses involved opioids, a […]

The recent publication of Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) provides an excellent opportunity to focus on the benefits of SBIRT in identifying those with alcohol and other substance use disorders.   Over 2 million people have been screened in the eleven years SAMHSA’s […]

The Food and Drug Administration has today made an important advance in helping to save lives when overdoses from drugs known as opioids occur: the approval of a drug that can actually reverse that overdose. Opioids include legal prescription drugs, such as OxyContin (oxycodone) and Vicodin (hydrocodone with acetaminophen), used to treat pain, as well […]

By: Elinore F. McCance-Katz, M.D., SAMHSA Chief Medical Officer There’s a new heroin on the street far more potent than the usual that people who are addicted to heroin have come to know and expect.  This heroin is laced with fentanyl—a prescription painkiller used to treat the severe pain of cancer.  Drug dealers are in […]

Cross-posted from ONDCP Blog
August 28, 2013 • By Michael Botticelli, Deputy Director of National Drug Control Policy
Approximately 100 Americans died from overdose every day in 2010. In just one year, we lost 38,000 people to overdose—more than the number who died from either homicides or traffic crashes. 22,000 of those deaths involved prescription drugs, and more than 3,000 involved heroin. Frighteningly, other data show that opiate use among young people is increasing.
These numbers are staggering. Here’s what makes them heartbreaking: every overdose death is preventable. Two years ago, we released a comprehensive …

By: Pamela S. Hyde, J.D., Administrator, SAMHSA
Today marks the beginning of SAMHSA’s second annual National Prevention Week, an observance dedicated to increasing public awareness of, and action around, substance abuse and mental health issues.   This year’s theme – Your voice. Your choice. Make a difference. – recognizes that the choices we make each day have a profound impact on our health and the well-being of our families and communities.
I encourage you to add your voice to the national conversation about prevention throughout this week.  Whether you post a message on your social media page, submit a …