Prevent Opioid Abuse is a national organization working to educate patients and parents about the risks of opioid-based painkillers and the availability of non-opioid alternatives. Versions of the Opioid Patient Notification Act, a model law it devised requiring that medical practitioners discuss the addictive potential of opioid-based painkillers with their patients – and parents of minor patients – as well as discuss, when appropriate, safer non-opioid pain relief alternatives have now been adopted in 21 states. Prevent Opioid Abuse is advancing national legislation, the Opioid Patients’ Right to Know Act, to ensure that more Americans are provided with this timely, life-saving information in conversations with their doctors–information that studies show is driving down the number of new patients started on opioids.
