Best practices, prevention discussed at upcoming Supreme Court opioid summit

  • Print

Teams from all 92 Indiana counties will convene in a little more than two weeks to discuss how to best equip the Indiana judiciary when facing cases concerning the state’s growing opioid crisis.  

The Indiana Supreme Court will host the Statewide Opioid Summit: A Medication Assisted Treatment and Addictions Primer for Justice Professionals from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on July 25 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. The event is part of the judicial branch's pledge to help fight the public health crisis created by the opioid epidemic. County teams will include judges, prosecutors, public defenders, chief probation officers, law enforcement, Department of Child Services representatives, community leaders and medical professionals.

The summit comes on the heels of a gathering of national court leaders who met in Indianapolis last month to brainstorm how the judiciary can best respond to the country’s increasing opioid epidemic. An ultimate takeaway from that gathering was the need to develop best practices informed by prevention and treatment for the future.

“I’ve never seen another issue come up in my lifetime as a judge that was more important to work together to find answers than this one,” Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush said at the June gathering. “There’s a lot of work to do.”

Sessions at the summit will focus on the science of addiction and evidence-based treatments for substance use disorders, along with tools for the community.

Please enable JavaScript to view this content.

{{ articles_remaining }}
Free {{ article_text }} Remaining
{{ articles_remaining }}
Free {{ article_text }} Remaining Article limit resets on
{{ count_down }}