NIH at the Intersection of Opioid Use and Criminal Justice

In 2019, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began supporting research on treatment for opioid use disorder in criminal justice settings.  The Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) studies the effectiveness of new medications and other interventions as part of the NIH HEAL Initiative – Helping to End Addiction Long-Term. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks the impact on rural areas: from 1999 to 2019,  the rate of drug overdose deaths in rural counties increased from 4.0 per 100,000 to 19.6.  To show the government’s response and ongoing work, JCOIN created an interactive map of federal and state funding invested in this work nationwide.