APhA Policy Manual

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Patient-Centered Care of People Who Uset Non-Medically Sanctioned Psychotropic or Psychoactive Substances

DRUG ABUSE, CONTROL AND EDUCATION EDUCATION, CURRICULUM AND COMPETENCE FOR PHARMACY

APhA encourages state legislatures and boards of pharmacy to revise laws, regulations, and policies to support the patient-centered care of people who use non-medically sanctioned psychotropic or psychoactive substances.
To reduce the consequences of stigma associated with drug use, APhA supports the expansion of interprofessional harm reduction education in the curriculum of schools and colleges of pharmacy, postgraduate training, and continuing professional development programs.
APhA encourages pharmacists to initiate, sustain, and integrate evidence-based harm reduction principles and programs into their practice to optimize the health of people who use non-medically sanctioned psychotropic or psychoactive substances.
APhA supports pharmacists’ roles to provide and promote consistent, unrestricted, and immediate access to evidence-based, mortality- and morbidity-reducing interventions to enhance the health of people who inject nonmedically sanctioned psychotropic or psychoactive substances and their communities, including sterile syringes, needles, and other safe injection equipment, syringe disposal, fentanyl test strips, immunizations, condoms, wound care supplies, pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis medications for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), point-of-care testing for HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV), opioid reversal agents, and medications for opioid use disorder.
APhA urges pharmacists to refer people who use nonmedically sanctioned psychotropic or psychoactive substances to specialists in mental health, infectious diseases, and substance use disorder treatment; to housing, vocational, harm reduction, and recovery support services; and to safe consumption facilities and syringe service programs.