The OPIOIDS Act would authorize the Attorney General to award grants to states, territories, and localities to improve data and surveillance on opioid-related overdoses. This includes funding to enhance postmortem toxicology testing, link data across systems, improve electronic death reporting, and broaden the completeness of data on both fatal and nonfatal overdoses. The bill also directs federal funding to local law enforcement and forensic laboratories in communities with high overdose rates to support overdose identification training, better drug tracing and data reporting to the National Forensic Laboratory Information System (NFLIS), and training to trace criminals through the darknet. It adds a requirement that funded entities report to NFLIS and expands training for first responders on handling exposure to fentanyl and other substances. The act further seeks to standardize NFLIS data input on drug purity, formulation, and weight, and requests a specific budget line for the Fentanyl Signature Profiling Program. Overall, the bill aims to improve overdose data quality and interoperability while enhancing law enforcement capabilities related to opioids.
Key Points
- 1Grants to states, territories, and localities to improve opioid overdose data and surveillance, including postmortem toxicology, data linkage, electronic death reporting, and overall data completeness for fatal and nonfatal overdoses.
- 2Law enforcement and forensic lab grants in high-overdose communities for overdose identification training, upgrading data reporting to NFLIS, and training to trace criminals through the darknet; mandatory NFLIS reporting for funded activities.
- 3Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers to provide coordination training for state and local agencies with federal partners on tracking drug activity.
- 4Amendments to the COPS program to authorize funding and resources for containment devices to prevent secondary exposure to fentanyl and other substances for first responders.
- 5DEA responsibilities to develop uniform NFLIS input standards for drug purity, formulation, and weight; clarifications that this does not create new obligations on state/local labs; and a required budget item for the Fentanyl Signature Profiling Program.