More than 107,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2021, with deaths rising fastest in Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color. In 2021, the overdose crisis took the lives of North Carolinians at the rate of ten per day, and last month, North Carolina’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed that deaths continued at these high levels into 2022. Efforts to reverse course on the overdose crisis are hampered by widespread discrimination against people who use drugs and the routine denial of lifesaving medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD).
In response, the Vital Strategies Overdose Prevention Program and Disability Rights North Carolina (DRNC) have launched two initiatives to protect the right to health care and other supportive services for North Carolinians with substance use disabilities, including access to agonist medications …