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📰 News Media

• 🧠 [VA] Senate Committee Weighs “Critical” VA-focused Psychedelics Bill - filtermag.org
• 🧪 [National] Funding cuts for fentanyl test strips raise concerns: "It doesn't make sense" - cbsnews.com

🗣️ Social Pulse

Lived/Living Experience

• 💬 Big thanks to all the wonderful people who took the time to learn about the BENEFITS of understanding, and deploying intramuscular naloxone!!! No matter how many of you made me feel like an absolute rockstar, YOU... - @azzy-mae on linkedin

Innovation

• 🧪 Nearly 60% of overdose deaths between March 2024 and 2025 involved fentanyl. Drug checking tools like test strips can help reduce overdose risk. (link) - @pewtrusts on X
• 🤖 Narcan Rescue Launches Free Life-Saving Initiative to Combat Opioid Overdoses Through Public Access Vending Machines (link) #NarcanRescue - @prunderground on X

Harm Reduction Discourse

• 🟢 Local studies near supervised consumption sites show overdose mortality reductions of 26-67% in surrounding areas - @Mllegallant on X
• 🟢 Since our state(NC) made access to naloxone easier we've seen our od deaths decrease by 38%. That's harm reduction. We still have a ways to go but that is a substantial start. - @Sixxwitch1 on X

🏙 City Updates

• 💊 - [Memphis, TN] - April 24, 2026 - Shelby County Health Department Hosts Community Care Fair on Saturday, May 2, 2026 - shelbytnhealth.com

📚 Academic Research

• 📉 Understanding Overdose Risk: The Role of System-level Factors after a Non-Fatal Drug Overdose Event - Digital Commons - East Tennessee State University (East Tennessee State University) - 2026-05-01 - dc.etsu.edu
• 🧰 Co-designing the Indigenous Evaluation Toolkit for Opioid Prevention in American Indian/Alaska Native Communities. - PubMed - 2026-04-30 - doi.org
• 🧪 Evaluating comparative effect of non‐pharmacological interventions adjunctive to opioid agonist therapy for opioid use disorder: A systematic review with network meta‐analysis - Addiction - 2026-04-28 - doi.org

⚖️ Law & Policy

Federal Agencies

• ⚖️ [United States] [Final Rule] Schedules of Controlled Substances: Placement of 4F-MDMB-BUTICA, ADB-4en-PINACA, 5F-EDMB-PICA, and MMB-FUBICA in Schedule I - federalregister.gov

💸 Funding (Click for more)

Current

• 💸 Bureau of Justice Assistance - BJA FY25 Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use, Site-Based Program - Deadline: May 4, 2026
• 💸 Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention - OJJDP FY25 Opioid Affected Youth Initiative - Deadline: May 4, 2026

Future

• 💉 AIDS United - Harm Reduction Futures Fund - Expected: TBA
• 🩺 APA Foundation - Helping Hands Grants - Helping Hands Grants Program (APA Foundation) - Up to $5,000 - Expected: May 1 (applications must be submitted by May 1)

📣 Activism

• 📝 Treatment Advocacy Center - Submit public comments on HUD work requirements and time limits rule
• 📣 Shatterproof - Ask Congress to support the COMPLETE Care Act

Update Notes

April 28, 2026 (#9608ff5) — Fixing backend issue with writing social posts to database. I love feedback and requests – contact@christianarthur.tech

Links

• Briefing Website & Archive
• Contact
• LinkedIn