Law and Legislation

Peer response: Length: A minimum of 150 words per post, not including references Citations: At least one high-level scholarly reference in APA per post from within the last 5 years Peer Post: While the country institutes measure to deal with the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, states continue to put measures in place to deal with the ongoing opioid crisis. The state of Arizona has instituted policies that focus on prevention and early interventions and increasing the access to substance use disorders, putting in place measures aimed at reducing stigma and protect individuals who inject drugs (PWID) from infectious diseases (Odenigbo, 2015). The State of Arizona is also looking at means to explore innovative payment models for treatment. Increasing public access to substance abuse through medication-assisted treatment, commonly referred to as MAT, can significantly lower infectious diseases through minimizing or doing away with an individual’s use of injection drugs. The State of Arizona has increased the coverage of medication-assisted treatment and other SUD treatment through private insurance and Medicaid and increased the percentage of individuals who use the medications. The state of Arizona, as part of its measures instituted the Heroin and Opioid Prevention and Education Agenda Act 262 in 2018 (Odenigbo, 2015). The opioid treatment also increases the State treatment capabilities by building more health facilities to handle the opioid treatment. The Act requires health facilities to report the number of individuals treated and the treatment outcomes. As a health care advocate at a local level, I would contact the National Conference of Legislature (NCSL) to help me get in touch with the office of State governor Doug Ducey detailing the impact Substance Abuse Disease on the State populace, and call for a face to face meeting to discuss the enactment of SUD control legislations, request to attend and speak at health conventions, and call for financial backing from the State office to promote SUD implications awareness (A Alhassan, 2017).   References A Alhassan, A. (2017). New Psychoactive Substances: “Chemical Chameleons” That Evade Detection and Legislations. International Journal Of Emergency Mental Health And Human Resilience, 19(3). doi: 10.4172/1522-4821.1000369 Odenigbo, A. (2015). Health Proffessionals Involvement In Politics A Means to Improving Healthcare Delivery and Healthcare Legislations for Healthcare Seekers. Value In Health, 18(7), A573. doi: 10.1016/j.jval.2015.09.1898