Where Next for Opioids and the Law? Despair, Harm Reduction, Lawsuits, and Regulatory Reform

It is difficult to overstate the severity of the opioid crisis in the US. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began to take notice of the increasingly dramatic rise of overdose mortality at least 15 years ago. Legislators have been slow to catch on and respond to the problem, creating legislation in response to heroin overdoses, not prescription opioids. The opioid issue hit the policy agenda substantially only during the current decade.