substance use disorder

While New Mexico has long struggled with the nation’s highest rate of alcohol-related deaths, the pandemic has inflamed the issue, according to a report released Thursday. The state saw an average of six people die each day from alcohol in 2021, and few living with the addiction are getting treatment.

New Mexico’s senior U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich is leading a bipartisan call for the Drug Enforcement Administration to make the opioid addiction medication buprenorphine more accessible. In a letter to the agency this week, the group of senators argue the DEA needs to be more transparent about its policies.

People in New Mexico state prisons are unable to access medication for addiction treatment unless they’re pregnant— even if they had been on medication before being incarcerated or were transferred from a handful of county jails that provide it. A new state law is going to change that.

People incarcerated in New Mexico have limited access to medication-assisted treatment for Opioid Use Disorder. A bill expected to be introduced in the upcoming legislative session would change that by making it state law for all corrections facilities in the state to consistently provide it. Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico Health Science Center Dr. Nathan Birnbaum treats patients returning home from prison and jail and has been working to get the bill in front of lawmakers.

Let's Talk NM 9/5, 8a: Communities across New Mexico are trying a new approach to substance use disorder: having law enforcement work with service…

Three New Mexico agencies are getting $200,000 each to plan responses to the opioid crisis in rural parts of the state. One will use the funding to do…