OECD - Addressing Problematic Opioid Use in OECD Countries

The preparation and writing of this report was co-ordinated by Cristian A. Herrera. Elinor Wahal (currently at the Paris Institute of Technology) draw together the policy analysis on Section 4 and Sachin Silva (currently at the Harvard School of Public Health) developed a part of the data analysis in Section 3. Michele Cecchini supervised the work of the report.

The OECD would like to acknowledge Health Canada as the institution that commissioned this report. The team would like to thank all the country delegates and experts for their responses to the data and policy questionnaires, comments on the drafts, and suggestions at various stages of the project. In particular, during the meeting of the OECD Economics of Public Health Working Party of 15-16 October 2018, and the OECD Health Committee meeting of 5-6 December 2018.

The authors would like to especially acknowledge the generous support and collaboration from colleagues at the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), in particular, Isabelle Giraudon, Jane Mounteney, Andr Noor, and Julian Vicente. In addition, Stefano Berterame from the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Angela Me from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Jordi Llinares from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) contributed with information and expertise to this report. The report also benefited from the knowledge, material and comments received from Sylvie Desjardins (Public Health Agency of Canada), Lynelle Moon (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare), Robert N. Anderson (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US), Donald MacPherson (Canadian Drug Policy Coalition), Alexander Walley (Boston University, US), Robert L. Dupont (Institute for Behaviour and Health, US), Sallie Pearson (University of New South Wales, Australia), Cathy Stannard (NHS Gloucestershire CCG, UK), Aliona Kurbatova (National Institute for Health Development, Estonia), Thomas Clausen (University of Oslo) and Martin White (Public Health England). Furthermore, we truly thank Pain Alliance Europe and the patients who kindly accepted to share their experience and expertise with us in the context of the project. Neither they nor their institutions are responsible for any of the opinions expressed in this report.

At the OECD, the authors wish to thank Ruth Lopert, Thomas Rapp, Francesca Colombo, Mark Pearson and Stefano Scarpetta from the Directorate of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS), all of whom provided relevant contributions through their numerous comments and viewpoints. We thank Marissa Plouin and Willem Adema from the Social Policy Division of ELS, and Michael Morantz and Jack Radisch from the Directorate of Public Governance for their important input to take a more intersectoral approach in the report. Thanks also go to Duniya Dedeyn, Lukasz Lech, Hannah Whybrow and Isabelle Vallard for their valuable administrative support, and to Lucy Hulett, Liv Gudmundson, Marie-Clmence Canaud, Spencer Wilson and Paul Gallagher for the editorial and media assistance. The report was copy-edited by Tracey Strange.