The American Medical Association (AMA) and Manatt Health recently undertook an in-depth analysis of the response to the opioid epidemic by 4 states: Colorado, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. The analysis focuses on state efforts in 6 key areas to identify best practices and provide a roadmap for all states to follow in order to increase access to high-quality, evidence-based treatment for persons with a substance use disorder (SUD) or who need comprehensive, multidisciplinary, multimodal pain care, and to increase access to naloxone to save lives from overdose. The analysis also highlights the need to evaluate statelevel data and state policies in order to determine what is working while amending actions and policies that may be having unintended consequences.

Before turning to the 6 key areas where states can act, we highlight 4 key themes that emerged from our work...