CHICAGO — The American Medical Association (AMA) released its 2024 Overdose Epidemic Report today, showing progress in harm reduction services and policy promoting evidence-based care, but underscores ongoing challenges as the nation’s drug overdose epidemic continues at near-historic levels. The AMA welcomes recent data showing decreases in drug-related mortality, but as the 2024 report shows, there are many actions that still need to be taken to save lives and improve outcomes for individuals with a substance use disorder or pain.

Key data cited in the report include:

• Opioid prescriptions have decreased by 51.7 percent since 2012. State-level decreases from 2012-2023 ranged between 36 to 68 percent. [See chart (PDF)]
• State prescription drug monitoring programs were used more than 1.4 billion times in 2023, a staggering increase since 2014 when they were used only 61 million times. [See chart (PDF)]
• Buprenorphine dispensed from retail pharmacies appears to have plateaued, likely due to a variety of factors including longer prescriptions, pharmacy reluctance to stock the medication, and confusion/fear over DEA suspicious order requirements. [See chart, PDF]
• Naloxone dispensed from retail pharmacies continues to grow. From 2018 to 2023, naloxone prescriptions increased from about 555,000 to nearly 2.2 million prescriptions. [See chart (PDF)]

“Half-measures and outdated policies are costing lives, and we urge policymakers to act,” said Bobby Mukkamala, MD, AMA president-elect and chair of the AMA Substance Use and Pain Care Task Force. “With thousands of families and communities devastated by overdose deaths, the time for incremental change has passed. We need unwavering commitment to expand access to lifesaving medications, enforce parity laws, and address the glaring gaps in harm reduction. We cannot stand by as outdated policies and insurance barriers prevent patients from accessing evidence-based care.”

The report presents a national view of the epidemic, highlights multiple best practices, and provides detailed explanations and specific policy recommendations for state and federal policymakers, including:

• Meaningful enforcement of state and federal mental health and substance use disorder parity laws
• Increased access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) through efforts such as removing outdated prior authorization dosage requirements for buprenorphine, authorizing methadone to be prescribed outside of Opioid Treatment Program settings, and having the DEA remove buprenorphine from its suspicious order reporting requirements until further notice
• Eliminating punitive policies against pregnant and parenting individuals who rely on MOUD
• Removing harmful, one-size-fits-all restrictions on opioid therapy that contradict policies by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federation of State Medical Boards
• Requiring payers to increase access to non-opioid, multi-modal pain care options
• Increasing access to naloxone in pharmacies, schools, universities and public settings
• Supporting efforts to fund and make other evidence-based harm reduction initiatives more widely available, including syringe services programs and overdose prevention centers.

“The AMA, our Substance Use and Pain Care Task Force, and the nation's physicians continue to urge policymakers, health insurance companies and other payers to once and for all remove barriers to evidence-based treatment for substance use disorders, pain care and harm reduction initiatives,” said Dr. Mukkamala. “Delays or denials of this care only results in increased suffering and death. Ending the epidemic is possible, but much more work must be done.”

Read the full report here (PDF).