Continuing Education Opportunities for Ohio Certified Peer Supporters & Peer Supporter Supervisors

The OhioMHAS Peer Services Team is pleased to share with you the below continuing education opportunities for Ohio Adult, Family and Youth Peer Supporters and Ohio Peer Supporter Supervisors! These opportunities are offered by our state and local partner organizations. Please feel free to share this with Peer Supporters and Peer Supporter Supervisors in your networks.

Webpage: https://mha.ohio.gov/community-partners/peer-supporters/resources/continuing-education
Additional opportunities will be added to this webpage as they are scheduled.

For full instructions to renew an Ohio Adult, Family or Youth Peer Supporter Certification, along with a list of additional organizations that may offer continuing education, please visit this webpage: https://mha.ohio.gov/community-partners/peer-supporters/apply-for-peer-supporter-certification-renewal

For additional information regarding the requirements to supervise Peer Supporters in Ohio, including the OhioMHAS 4-hour Peer Supporter Supervision Training, please visit this webpage: https://mha.ohio.gov/community-partners/peer-supporters/supervising-peer-supporters

OhioMHAS Peer Services Team
Office of Community Planning & Collaboration| Bureau of Recovery Supports
30 E. Broad St., 36^th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215
E-mail Address: [email protected]
Webpage: https://mha.ohio.gov/community-partners/peer-supporters

Counterfeit Fentanyl Pills are Becoming a lot More Common in Law Enforcement Seizures

A new study shows a dramatic spike in the number of counterfeit fentanyl pills being seized by law enforcement, an indication of the growing illicit drug supply driving the country's historic opioid crisis.

Last year, more than 115 million pills containing illicit fentanyl were seized by law enforcement, compared to over 71 million in 2022, according to the study published Monday in the International Journal of Drug Policy. The study found that the number of pills seized last year was 2,300 times greater than the roughly 50,000 seized in 2017. The counterfeit pills are made to look like legit prescription opioid medications — like oxycodone or benzodiazepines — but are often far deadlier. Public health officials have been warning about the presence of fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid, in the illicit drug supply for more than a decade. The new report highlights the rising threat of cheap and highly potent counterfeit pills, especially in the western U.S.

Ohio Adult-Use Marijuana Sales Approved as Part of 2023 Ballot Measure Could Begin by Mid-June

Recreational marijuana could be available for sale in Ohio by mid-June, after new licensing rules for dispensaries cleared a key legislative hurdle Monday.

Adult-use sales have been in limbo in the state since December, when an initiated statute approved by voters went into effect. Ohioans over 21 were immediately able to legally grow and possess cannabis at home, but they had nowhere to legally buy it — prompting concern by Gov. Mike DeWine and some fellow Republicans in the Legislature that openings would be created for a black market. On Monday, the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review allowed rules to proceed without objection that clear the way for a dual licensing program that will allow existing medical marijuana dispensaries to also sell non-medical pot products. Jim Canepa, superintendent of the Division of Cannabis Control, said applications will be available by no later than June 7, as the new law requires.

The new law allows adults 21 and over to buy and possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and to grow up to six plants per individual or 12 plants per household at home. It gave the state nine months to set up a system for legal marijuana purchases, subject to a 10% tax. Sales revenue is to be divided between administrative costs, addiction treatment, municipalities with dispensaries, paying for social equity and jobs programs supporting the cannabis industry itself.

More Addiction Patients Can Take Methadone at Home, But Some States Lag Behind

Despite methadone’s effectiveness, a labyrinth of state and federal rules — meant to guard against its misuse — keeps it inaccessible to many people who desperately need it.

Yet addiction treatment in the United States is poised for change. This year, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, known as SAMHSA, made permanent a set of pandemic-era rules that loosened several restrictions, including those on take-home doses of methadone. It’s a move that a broad consensus of academics, advocates and providers says will improve treatment access and success rates. Having the flexibility to take medication at home can mean patients can get to work or get their kids to school on time. They can deal with family emergencies and unexpected travel. And they avoid the stigma of waiting in line at a clinic. In theory, the new federal rules make more take-home methadone doses available to a wider subset of patients. But what’s less clear is how the rules will trickle down to states. There’s concern states that didn’t preserve the relaxed regulations they had during the pandemic might be slow to adopt them now. “A number of states will have to revise their regulations if they’re going to be in alignment with what SAMHSA has released,” Mark Parrino, founder and president of the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence Inc., a national trade group that supports the new federal regulations. “What could delay implementation would be the state regulators.”

Later this month at his group’s annual conference, SAMHSA will convene a closed-door meeting of regulators from all 50 states to discuss the new federal rules and how states might bring their own standards into compliance, Parrino said.

It’s all happening as the opioid crisis, driven by rising fentanyl overdoses, has prompted a chorus of physicians and advocates to call for loosening methadone restrictions even further — a move that leaders at many opioid treatment programs oppose.