# A Framework for Understanding Mechanisms of Policy Change: The Opioid Policy Taxonomy

> **NIH NIH P50** · RAND CORPORATION · 2024 · $334,827

## Abstract

Policies Project Abstract
Policymakers have launched multiple initiatives to reduce inappropriate prescribing of opioid analgesics,
prevent opioid misuse, improve access to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder, and decrease
rates of opioid-related overdose morbidity and mortality. The efforts have been taken at various levels of
government, across different systems, and at different stages of the crisis. These layers of policy adoption
and implementation create challenges for identifying which strategies, or “bundle” of strategies, may be most
effective in reducing opioid-related harms. A growing number of opioid policy data resources have become
available, but all rely on a piecemeal approach to select the specific policies covered. This project will
develop an organizing classification framework for opioid policy surveillance and use the framework to
improve the existing addiction policy data infrastructure and enhance our scientific understanding of the
determinants of policy adoption and implementation. Using established best-practices from implementation
science and legal epidemiology, we will develop a taxonomy for describing, reporting, and organizing the
opioid policy landscape and assess the taxonomy’s relevance for broader addiction policy surveillance. We
will also map existing opioid policy data resources within the taxonomy to identify where there are needs for
new or improved opioid policy surveillance. Within three categories of the taxonomy, we will identify where
states are adopting relevant policies and where there are gaps in current policy approaches; within each of
the three categories, we will assess what factors influence states’ decisions to adopt particular policy
approaches. The project will help address limitations of existing opioid policy datasets; inform opioid policy
development within a more holistic framework of substance use and social policy; and lay the groundwork for
extending this project to broader application, with the ultimate goal of developing a policy surveillance system
that can characterize distinct components of the addiction policy environment (local, state, and federal) with
applicability to future drug crises. Study findings will help spur progress toward identifying strategies, or
combinations of strategies, most effective in reducing opioid-related harms.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10877053
- **Project number:** 5P50DA046351-07
- **Recipient organization:** RAND CORPORATION
- **Principal Investigator:** Rosanna Smart
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $334,827
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-15 → 2028-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10877053

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10877053, A Framework for Understanding Mechanisms of Policy Change: The Opioid Policy Taxonomy (5P50DA046351-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10877053. Licensed CC0.

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