ABA Releases Report on Opioids Crisis
It makes nine recommendations and suggests 45 action items, including recommending more education and training opportunities to leverage existing policies that protect people dealing with substance misuse and providing treatment for under-insured and uninsured people.
A new report on the U.S. opioids crisis has been released by the American Bar Association. The report grew out of a May 4, 2018, Opioid Summit in Chicago by ABA's Senior Lawyers Division; it makes nine recommendations and suggests 45 action items, including recommending more education and training opportunities to leverage existing policies that protect people dealing with substance misuse and providing treatment for under-insured and uninsured people.
The report and its recommendations will be used to collaborate with other ABA entities to develop specific policy resolutions on the opioid crisis. The Senior Lawyers Division plans to have a resolution approving the report's recommendations and action items reviewed by the ABA House of Delegates as early as the ABA Midyear Meeting in January 2019.
"The epidemic is shortening American life expectancy, impacting local government budgets, straining family resources and relationships, and challenging all of us to find solutions," said Jack Young, chair of the ABA Senior Lawyers Division. "It affects all of us."
"The Opioid Summit's recommendations and action items include specific, meaningful, and practical solutions for the opioid crisis, which has been called the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history," added Marvin Dang, chair-elect of the ABA Senior Lawyers Division and chair of the Opioid Summit. "The legal profession is a critical partner in the collaborative effort with other professions to address the opioid crisis."