Policy Currents | The newsletter for policy people
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** Aug 31, 2023

Addressing the Opioid Crisis: Pain Management Is Key

Opioid-related lawsuits are expected to generate more than $50 billion in settlement funds. This money is designated for states and localities to remediate the catastrophic consequences of the opioid crisis. So far, the distribution of funds has focused on reducing opioid-related deaths and other harms, as well as improving treatment for substance use disorders.

A new RAND paper explores a missing piece of the strategy: directing some settlement funds upstream, primarily by expanding access to nonopioid alternatives for pain management. This is a vital part of stemming the tide of the opioid crisis, as two-thirds of adults who misuse opioid prescriptions report that their motivation for opioid use is to relieve physical pain.

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A Trilateral Summit to Deal with Trilateral Threats

U.S. President Joe Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a historic trilateral summit at Camp David earlier this month. RAND's Bruce Bennett breaks down the primary reason for this summit: growing nuclear threats from Russia, China, and North Korea. The Cold Warera approach to dealing with such threats is insufficient today, Bennett says. The United States and its allies and partners need a new, more-advanced doctrine--and now is the time to prepare.

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Turning Climate Information into Action

Hurricane Idalia made landfall this week, causing severe flooding in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Elsewhere in the country, flooding remains a growing, costly problem. In the Mid-Atlantic region, for example, extreme precipitation has led to flooding nearly every season since 2018. And this problem will likely worsen as a consequence of climate change. A new RAND paper outlines key information to help Mid-Atlantic stormwater managers and civil engineers, who are generally not trained climate scientists, better protect their communities from flooding.

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** RAND Recommends

- The New Yorker profiled RAND's Samuel Charap, who has become one of the most active voices in the U.S. foreign-policy community calling for negotiations to end or freeze the war in Ukraine.
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- What are the differences between the U.S. Army's new M10 Booker combat vehicle and the Abrams tank? RAND's Scott Boston breaks it down in this Wall Street Journal explainer video.
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- RAND summer associate Nadia Almasalkhi and senior policy researcher Shelly Culbertson explain why normalizing the Assad regime won't solve the Syrian refugee crisis.
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** Events
Infrastructure Equity, Sport, and Community: Closing the Loop
Wednesday, September 6, 2023 (Hybrid: Los Angeles and Online)
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Supply Chain Uncertainty: Building Resilience in the Face of Impending Threats
Tuesday, September 12, 2023 (Online)
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Policy Lab: Building the U.S. Workforce Through Stackable Credentials
Thursday, September 28, 2023 (Online)
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** About RAND
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis.

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