Strategies

Use specialized courts to work with parents involved in the child welfare system who may lose custody of their children due to substance abuse

Provide immunity from arrest, charge, or prosecution for drug possession or paraphernalia when individuals experiencing or witnessing drug overdose summon emergency services

Strengthen policies that mandate ignition interlock installation in vehicles to prevent operation by a driver with a high blood alcohol concentration

Provide medications such as methadone to individuals diagnosed with opioid use disorder in outpatient, residential, and hospital settings, usually with counseling and behavioral therapies; often called MAT

Maintain the current legal age when an individual can purchase alcoholic beverages; currently 21 years in all states

Distribute Naloxone to trained community members and first responders to reverse opioid overdoses

Establish programs that accept expired, unwanted, or unused medicines from designated users and dispose of them responsibly

Adopt laws that hold private property owners who provide alcohol to minors or obviously intoxicated individuals on their property liable if someone is killed or injured as a result

Provide sterile injection equipment and often other treatment and referral services to people who inject drugs; also called needle or syringe exchange programs and needle syringe programs