Individuals inherently deserve services that promote health, regardless of whether they use drugs. Evidence-based harm reduction strategies minimize negative consequences of drug use. These activities further expand access to harm reduction interventions and better integrate harm reduction into general medical care.
This page highlights current federal activities that promote harm reduction by increasing the availability and access to high-quality harm reduction services, decreasing negative effects of substance use, and reducing stigma related to substance use and overdose.
Advance research and demonstrations on innovative harm reduction approaches.
Featured Activity Facilitate evidence-based use of Fentanyl Testing Strips (FTS) and drug checking utilization in community and clinical settings
Because the presence of fentanyl mixed with other types of drugs poses a significant risk of accidental overdose and is often hard to detect, NIDA and FDA are supporting research to investigate the effectiveness of rapid-acting fentanyl test strips in modifying drug use behaviors and exploring drug checking needs in clinical settings.
Lead Agencies:
NIH, FDA
Partner Agencies:
CDC, SAMHSA
Implementing Comprehensive HIV Services in Syringe Services Program (SSP) Settings
This video spotlights harm reduction at the IDEA Exchange in Miami, Fla., a comprehensive syringe services program where NIH grantee Dr. Hansel E. Tookes, III, and his team work to deliver integrated HIV and harm reduction services to people who use drugs and those in recovery, and learn from research projects how to optimize care to achieve the best outcomes.
Lead Agency:
NIH
Partner Agency:
CDC
Widening access to opioid overdose reversal treatments
FDA continues to take actionable steps that encourage harm reduction by supporting the availability, accessibility, and development of novel overdose reversal drugs, including naloxone and nalmefene.
Lead Agency:
FDA
Promote evidence-based harm reduction services, including those that are integrated with health care delivery.
Featured Activity CDC-SAMHSA Harm Reduction Technical Assistance Program
Syringe services programs (SSPs) help reduce injection-related health risks if an individual who uses drugs has a sterile syringe and proper equipment for every injection. The CDC-SAMHSA Harm Reduction Technical Assistance Program will strengthen the capacity and improve the performance of SSPs by implementing a national SSP monitoring and evaluation program. It will also support the development and implementation of best practices for patient navigation from SSPs to community-based health and social services.
Lead Agency:
CDC
Partner Agency:
SAMHSA
Prevent Prescription Drug/Opioid Overdose Related Deaths
Lead Agency:
SAMHSA
Expand sustainable funding strategies for harm reduction services.
Featured Activity Harm Reduction Grants
The SAMHSA Harm Reduction Grants program awards funding to states, local, tribal, territorial governments and organizations, community-based organizations, and providers to support overdose prevention programs, syringe services programs and other related services.
Lead Agency:
SAMHSA
Partner Agency:
CDC
Mobile Crisis Intervention Services Planning Grants and State Option in Medicaid
Lead Agency:
CMS
Partner Agency:
SAMHSA
Develop educational materials and programs to reduce stigma.
Featured Activity Stop Overdose Campaign
CDC’s Stop Overdose campaign, which builds on CDC’s Rx Awareness campaign, educates people who use drugs about the dangers of illicitly manufactured fentanyl, the risks and consequences of mixing drugs, the lifesaving power of naloxone, and the importance of reducing stigma around recovery and treatment options.
Lead Agency: CDC
General Research.
Featured Activity Concordance between controlled substance receipt and post-mortem toxicology in opioid-detected overdose deaths: A statewide analysis
Lead Agency:
FDA
Modeling the evolution of the US opioid crisis for national policy development
To improve access to and quality of substance use disorder treatment for Medicaid beneficiaries, Section 1115 Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Demonstrations provide state programs with funding to develop innovative solutions to address local concerns about health services provided and to phase in a range of strategies to address those concerns.
Lead Agency:
FDA
Reducing opioid use disorder and overdose deaths in the United States: A dynamic modeling analysis
Lead Agency:
FDA
Testing for Fentanyl — Urgent Need for Practice-Relevant and Public Health Research
Lead Agency:
NIH
Partner Agency:
FDA
Opioid Overdose: Limitations in Naloxone Reversal of Respiratory Depression and Prevention of Cardiac Arrest
Lead Agency:
FDA
Effect of Paroxetine or Quetiapine Combined with Oxycodone vs Oxycodone Alone on Ventilation During Hypercapnia: A Randomized Clinical Trial
Lead Agency:
FDA
Development of a Translational Model to Assess the Impact of Opioid Overdose and Naloxone Dosing on Respiratory Depression and Cardiac Arrest
Lead Agency:
FDA
Understanding syringeability and injectability of high molecular weight PEO solution through time-dependent force-distance profiles
Lead Agency:
FDA
Understanding syringeability and injectability of high molecular weight PEO solution through time-dependent force-distance profiles
Lead Agency:
FDA
Amphetamines modulate fentanyl-depressed respiration in a bidirectional manner
Lead Agency:
FDA
Asymmetrical Flow Field Flow Fractionation for Molar Mass Characterization of Polyethylene Oxide in Abuse-Deterrent Formulations
Lead Agency:
FDA
Stability of Abuse-deterrent properties of PEO-based Abuse-deterrent formulation
Lead Agency:
FDA
Association of partial systemic exposure and abuse potential for opioid analgesics with abuse deterrence labeling claims supporting product-specific guidance
Lead Agency:
FDA
State laws that authorize pharmacists to prescribe naloxone are associated with increased naloxone dispensing in retail pharmacies
Lead Agency:
FDA
Determination of structural factors affecting binding to mu, kappa and delta opioid receptors
Lead Agency:
FDA
Relative Effectiveness of Social Media, Dating Apps, and Information Search Sites in Promoting HIV Self-testing: Observational Cohort Study
Lead Agency:
NIH
Community selected strategies to reduce opioid-related overdose deaths in the HEALing (Helping to End Addiction Long-term SM) communities study
Lead Agency:
NIH
Partner Agency:
SAMHSA
The policy landscape for naloxone distribution in four states highly impacted by fatal opioid overdoses
Lead Agency:
NIH
Rural communities face more than an opioid crisis: Reimagining funding assistance to address polysubstance use, associated health problems, and limited rural service capacity
Lead Agency:
HRSA
Naloxone dispensing among the commercially insured population in the United States from 2015 to 2018
Lead Agency:
CDC
Trends in State-Level Pharmacy-Based Naloxone Dispensing Rates, 2012-2019
Lead Agency:
CDC
Concurrent Naloxone dispensing among individuals with high-risk opioid prescriptions, United States, 2015-2019
Lead Agency:
CDC
Naloxone administration among opioid-involved overdose deaths in 38 United States jurisdictions in the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System, 2019
Lead Agency:
CDC
Trends in Pharmacy-Based Dispensing of Buprenorphine, Extended-Release Naltrexone, and Naloxone During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Age and Sex – United States, March 2019 – December 2020
Lead Agency:
CDC