From SAMSHSA:
In 2017, the opioid crisis was declared a national public health emergency. At the time, over 2.1 million people in the United States suffered from an opioid use disorder (OUD), and two out of three drug overdose deaths involved opioids. Overdose deaths from opioids, including prescription opioids, heroin, and synthetic opioids like fentanyl, increased nearly
six-fold since 1999.
The criminal justice system has felt the impact of this epidemic. Based on the 2015-2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the odds of being
arrested and becoming involved in the criminal justice system increase greatly for persons using opioids, from approximately 16 percent for those with no past- year opioid use to 52 percent for those suffering from a prescription OUD and 77 percent for those using heroin.
Twenty-four to thirty-six percent of individuals with a heroin use disorder (over 200,000 individuals) pass through American correctional facilities annually,
and an estimated 17 percent of state prison inmates and 19 percent of jail inmates report regularly using opioids.7-9 Roughly 30 to 45 percent of inmates report
suffering from serious withdrawal symptoms or an inability to control their use, indicative of severe symptoms of drug dependence. Continue reading >>>
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