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Abstract

There is without a doubt an opioid consumption and subsequent opioid overdose epidemic currently in the United States. With the formation of any epidemic, governmental policies are created and enacted to combat and end the epidemic. Many different state and federal policy solutions have been proposed. This paper focuses on Michigan’s attempt at reducing the opioid epidemic with Policy Act No. 251 in Public Acts of 2017 of Michigan (2017 PA 251). According to 2017 PA 251, a prescriber shall not prescribe his/her patient more than a 7-day supply of an opioid within a 7-day period if the prescriber is treating the patient for acute pain. In order to analyze if prescription limitations benefits outweigh the disadvantages, the policy beneficiaries, targets, instruments and outcomes are identified. Based upon the gathered information three areas are recommended for policy improvement. Michigan is not the only state suffering from the opioid epidemic. Other state opioid laws and mitigation models are identified and analyzed to show that not one solution on its own will be likely to solve the opioid epidemic. States must learn from each other’s successes and failures and work as a nation to solve the prescription opioid epidemic that kills on average 17,000 Americans a year (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2019).

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