Overdose prevention policy gets made in very specific places: a state treasurer's office deciding how to spend settlement dollars, a congressional committee debating treatment funding, a state capitol considering a punitive drug bill. The advocates who shape those decisions usually share a method. They bring data, they bring lived experience and they keep showing up until policymakers have to reckon with both.
That approach helped drive real progress. In 2024, U.S. overdose deaths fell by nearly 27 percent, the largest single-year decline on record. That did not happen by accident. It followed years of investment in medications for opioid use disorder, naloxone distribution, harm reduction services, treatment access and recovery support. It also reflected years of advocacy to turn evidence into policy.
That progress is fragile. Medicaid coverage for substance use disorder treatment remains under pressure. More than $50 billion in opioid settlement dollars is being allocated state by state, often with uneven guidance. At the same time, some lawmakers continue to advance punitive drug policies that do not match the evidence. In 2026, the task is not only to build on what worked. It is to protect it.
That is why we are proud to highlight three Overdose Prevention Initiative partners working on different parts of the same challenge. Healthy Minds Policy Initiative, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and Broken No More operate in different arenas, but their work points to the same truth: strong overdose policy depends on evidence that is translated clearly, grounded in real experience and carried into the rooms where decisions get made.
Healthy Minds Policy Initiative, guiding settlement spending in Oklahoma
States and localities will receive opioid settlement payments for years to come. How those dollars are spent will shape overdose outcomes for a generation. Yet many states still lack the infrastructure to assess where need is greatest, which interventions are working and how to avoid duplicating existing services.
Healthy Minds Policy Initiative has helped build that infrastructure in Oklahoma. The organization maps overdose rates, treatment capacity and service gaps at the county level, then translates those findings into recommendations state leaders can act on. Healthy Minds shows what it looks like to pair local data with smart policy choices before those dollars are spent.
As Zack Stoycoff, President and CEO, explains, "Our job at Healthy Minds is to make sure policymakers and community leaders can make informed decisions that solve Oklahoma's mental health and substance use challenges. Across Oklahoma, we've equipped communities with data and guidance to direct opioid settlement dollars where they are needed most, including expanding access to medications for opioid use disorder and life-saving naloxone."
National Council for Mental Wellbeing, bringing evidence to Congress
At the federal level, protecting progress depends on policymaking that defends Medicaid-funded substance use disorder treatment, preserves access to evidence-based care and continues to invest in the workforce that makes treatment possible.
The National Council for Mental Wellbeing represents more than 3,400 member organizations. Its advocacy helps congressional offices understand what the treatment system looks like in practice, where people face delays, where gaps remain and what happens when funding shrinks or policy adds new barriers.
Philip Rutherford, Vice President of Growth and Substance Use Strategy, makes the case plainly: "Advocacy without evidence is just opinion, but when you pair lived experience with rigorous data, you build something policymakers can't ignore. Data tells us how many people are waiting for treatment that never comes, which communities are hardest hit, and which interventions are actually working. The overdose crisis doesn't respond to good intentions; it responds to smart, targeted, evidence-based solutions."
Policymakers need clear evidence about what improves access, what supports retention and what keeps people alive. The National Council helps bring that clarity into federal debates that shape treatment access nationwide.
Broken No More, turning family experiences into evidence-based advocacy
Across the country, state lawmakers continue to consider punitive drug policies such as drug-induced homicide laws and sentencing enhancements as responses to overdose. Broken No More helps bring a different perspective into those debates by equipping families who have lost loved ones to overdose with research, policy information and a platform to advocate for approaches grounded in evidence and focused on saving lives.
As Tamara Olt, M.D., Executive Director, puts it, "When families like ours walk into a legislator's office, we bring our grief, but we also bring the science. Research showing that drug-induced homicide laws fail to deter drug sales, that medications like buprenorphine and methadone save lives, and that punitive policies disproportionately harm Black and Brown communities isn't abstract to us. It's the difference between policies that kill and policies that heal."
Broken No More does not ask families to set grief aside. It helps them channel it toward policies grounded in evidence, policies that reduce harm instead of deepening it.
Together, these three partners show how evidence moves policy in different ways. They describe the same model of advocacy: evidence that is practical, persuasive and human. The decline in overdose deaths in 2024 showed what is possible when policy, funding and evidence align. Holding on to that progress will require the same discipline now, especially as states spend settlement dollars, Congress debates treatment funding and punitive approaches continue to compete with proven solutions.
