The unregulated drug supply is driving overdose deaths. The Drug Policy Alliance supports safer supply and the legal regulation of drugs as life-saving alternatives while balancing public health and community safety.
“ As we face the worst overdose death crisis we have ever seen in the United States, why wouldn’t we try every tool we have in our toolkit to prevent deaths?”
Dr. Kimberly Sue
addiction medicine physician
Harm reduction, drug checking, and treatment help reduce overdose risk and address addiction, but they can't fix the drug supply. Regulation allows policymakers to address the issue at the source, controlling drug production, access, and consumption.
The production and sale of legal drugs should remain free from large commercial interests. Regulatory policies should explore different models, including non-profit and cooperatives, that center individual and community well-being.
Until the U.S. has legal regulation, drug checking tools like fentanyl test strips help people know what's in their drugs. Reality-based education teaches the harms and effects of drug use, and overdose response, helping people make safer, informed choices.
People use drugs for many valid, human reasons—pleasure, pain relief, coping with stress or trauma, cultural practices, spirituality, or curiosity. Some may wish drug use didn’t exist, but the reality is that it does. Because today’s street supply is unpredictable, even occasional users can be exposed to potent drugs like fentanyl, dramatically increasing the risk of overdose. This public health crisis requires approaches that can save lives.
Legal regulation means allowing drugs to be produced, taxed, distributed, and used legally—under strict quality standards with accurate labeling, like other consumer goods. It must align with public health and safety principles.
Safer supply provides people (whose substance use disorder is controlled) access to regulated drugs from legal sources. This reduces the risk of contamination with things like fentanyl. This is typically done through medical prescription.
Together, these approaches ensure that people have access to a drug supply that is free from contaminants and of known potency—reducing the risk of overdose and keeping people alive.
After over 50 years of the drug war, drugs are cheaper, stronger, and easier to get than ever. The overdose crisis is happening because no one has control over the street drug market. Trying to stop prescription opioids and heroin led to fentanyl. Now, concerning drugs like xylazine and nitazenes (a synthetic opioids that can be 10 times stronger than fentanyl) are showing up.
Transitioning to these models takes planning and learning. By studying successful examples like Switzerland’s, we can improve upon existing models to ensure future drug policies focus on best practices, consumer safety, and public health.
Legal regulation cannot operate in a vacuum. Communities need resources and services to not just survive but thrive. Drug criminalization comes with a hefty price tag– it costs taxpayers $44 billion each year. This money and money from legal regulation—like marijuana tax revenue– must support our collective health and wellbeing. This includes funding essential services like addiction treatment, affordable housing, employment programs, harm reduction, and recovery programs.
The Drug Policy Alliance is committed to reducing the harms of the unpredictable drug supply by advancing drug regulation based on evidence, health, equity, and human rights.
The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) supports medical and adult use legalization and regulation of controlled substances to the extent consistent with public health and community safety and in accordance with these key principles.
Heroin-assisted treatment (HAT) refers to the prescription of pharmaceutical heroin (diacetylmorphine) to people with severe opioid use disorders who have not responded well to more traditional forms of treatment.
The overdose crisis is a public health emergency. The Drug Policy Alliance is advocating for a public health approach to drugs that can prevent overdose deaths and save lives.
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