Spark

Overdoses and other drug-related harms have become so pervasive that they have contributed to a multi-year decline in U.S. life expectancy, the longest period of sustained decline in this country since WWI. Some subpopulations, like rural adults and Black and Latinx adults, are bearing a particularly heavy burden of drug-related suffering.

Unfortunately, there is a wide implementation chasm for harm reduction services in the U.S. (the “implementation chasm” is the gap between scientific advances and on-the-ground practices). According to the Surgeon General, for example, just 12% of people living with a substance use disorder received specialty treatment in the past year. Spatial access to services is also highly variable across the U.S. Until recently, for example, the state of Georgia had just one syringe service program, despite these programs’ documented impacts on HIV transmission and linkage to treatment.

Together, Emory faculty, staff, and students and collaborators are advancing research and developing interventions to close this implementation chasm and end drug-related suffering. Since 1990, Emory faculty have been awarded $301.40 million in drug- and alcohol-related grants from the National Institutes of Health alone. These projects encompass drug discovery, novel clinical interventions, community-based interventions, and policy research.