AUTHORS

Jay Chaudhary, JD Managing Attorney & Director of Medical-Legal Partnerships, Indiana Legal Services Adjunct Faculty Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health

Kate Marple, MSc Senior Research Scientist & Director of Communications, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership

Jillian Bajema Research Assistant, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership
 

INTRODUCTION

The current opioid epidemic is a public health crisis, devastating urban, suburban, and rural communities across the United States. The problem — rooted both in the overprescribing of prescription opioids as painkillers, and the increased accessibility of cheap heroin and synthetic heroin substitutes — resulted in more than 42,000 opioid overdose-related deaths in 2016.1 At the end of that same year, 2.1 million Americans were living with an opioid-related substance use disorder (SUD)2, and the problem is getting worse daily.