What is the Hudson County Prescriber Toolkit?

According to the Center for Disease Control, Nearly 841,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. Over 70% of drug overdose deaths in 2019 involved an opioid. Overdose deaths involving opioids, including prescription opioids, heroin, and synthetic opioids (like fentanyl), have increased over six times since 1999.

In 2011, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Interagency Working Group on Prescription Drug Abuse released a strategy for Responding to America’s Prescription Drug Crisis to help curb the opioid epidemic. Through this initiative, federal agencies have worked with states to educate providers, pharmacists, patients, parents, and youth about the dangers of prescription drug abuse and the need for proper prescribing, dispensing, use, and disposal; to implement effective prescription drug monitoring programs; to facilitate proper medication disposal through prescription take-back initiatives such as the DEA’s National Take Back Day; and to support aggressive enforcement to address doctor shopping and pill mills and support the development of abuse-resistance formulations for opioid pain relievers.

Federal and state initiatives have been developed to reform opioid prescribing practices, expand access to the overdose-reversal drug naloxone (NARCAN) and expand access to medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. This initiative also allowed for prevention education programs that educate communities on prescription drug abuse and advocate for positive environmental changes at the local level to reduce prescription drug abuse.