Consensus Meeting

The National Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Policy Consensus Meeting has consistently been among the most substantively focused and effective gatherings nationwide to unite the diverse stakeholders who must work together to reduce prescription drug abuse.

Now in its sixth year, the National Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Policy Consensus Meeting will summon health care professionals, educators, legislators, law enforcement, insurers, private companies, journalists, academics, and nonprofits to Washington on November 19, 2013, all in search of the best ideas for reducing prescription drug abuse while optimizing patient care.

Your ideas, perhaps.

The Center for Lawful Access and Abuse Deterrence (CLAAD), the nonprofit policy group behind the meeting, hopes to foster greater coordination among groups that never previously talked and often worked at cross purposes: private companies, nonprofit groups, and government policy makers.

CLAAD’s policy positions are established through a consensus process, in which at least 80 percent of the participants must represent not-for-profit organizations. This rule of governance ensures that the public interest drives CLAAD’s priorities, as opposed to the interests of individual stakeholders.

Participants in the 2012 Consensus Meeting were affiliated with (but did not necessarily officially represent) the following organizations:

Alliance for the Adoption of Innovations in Medicine American Academy of Pain Medicine American Chronic Pain Association American Society for Pain Management Nursing American Society of Addiction Medicine American Society of Anesthesiologists CNS Drug Consult Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America Drug Free America Foundation DCBA Law & Policy Endo Pharmaceuticals Federation of State Medical Boards Grünenthal USA LifeSource Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office

Millennium Laboratories Millennium Research Institute National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors Northeastern University, Department of Pharmacy Practice Office of Congressman Michael Grimm Office of Congressman Bill Keating Office of Congressman Hal Rogers Operation UNITE Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association RYAN’s Cause Save Our Society from Drugs Signature Therapeutics The Wall Street Journal

These strange bedfellows and others have made demonstrable progress by working together over the past five years, but much more must be done.

At this year’s meeting, a select group of only eight socially responsible private companies will have a rare opportunity that goes far beyond sitting and listening to other people speak. They will forge relationships with practitioners who can adopt their technologies, insurance companies that can pay for patients to use them, regulators who can foster the conditions for their widespread adoption, and nonprofits that can credibly advocate for all that to happen.

Participants will also face far less competition than they would at mega-conferences for attention from The Wall Street Journal, FDA Week, and other media that attend this 40-person meeting.

The stakes are huge. Drug overdoses rank as the leading cause of accidental human death in the U.S., but sound policy, coordinated activity, and evidence-based technology can change that, saving countless lives and making the most innovative companies amazingly rich.

Please bring your ideas to the consensus meeting and support its life-saving ambitions. Become a sponsor.

For more information on the National Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Policy Consensus Meeting and sponsorship opportunities, contact Paul Scott O’Neill, M.A., Policy Advisor, at (202) 599-8435, ext. 701, or  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Photos taken at the 5th annual National Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Policy Consensus Meeting in 2012: