Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
August 11, 2017
As part of a U.S. government-wide effort to combat the opioid crisis, the Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) launched an initiative this week to help current users fight addiction, both domestically and overseas. INL has supported international programs to treat heroin and opium addiction for more than 30 years, and now seeks to offer some of those lessons learned overseas to U.S. communities confronting today’s opioid/heroin crisis.
INL convened an Expert Working Group that included U.S. and international experts in substance use recovery, including from the Department of Health and Human Services, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the United Nations, the Colombo Plan, the Organization of American States, and civil society organizations. The Expert Working Group kicked off a process to create a science-based curriculum to reduce relapses among drug users and support them in breaking their dependency on drugs. The curriculum will equip substance use professionals – in U.S. towns struggling with opioids, as well as overseas – with hands-on, practical, and evidence-based recovery methods.
The curriculum will be disseminated overseas to recovery support practitioners as part of the broader Universal Treatment Curriculum (UTC), a centerpiece of State Department drug demand reduction efforts. It is intended for individuals in recovery interested in becoming community mentors for others dealing with drug addiction.
For more information please contact INL-PAPD@state.gov, or follow INL on Facebook at Facebook.com/StateINL and Twitter via @StateINL.