Indiana ranks among the worst states nationally when it comes to opioid use disorder – with drug overdoses in 2014 claiming more than 1,100 lives and costing the state $1.4 billion. But this year, we also may be one of the best positioned places to tackle the opioid epidemic by addressing its root causes and changing the way our state helps people overcome addiction. Two recent developments – one at the state level and one in Indianapolis – signal the momentum for addressing the challenge: In January, Republican Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb created a cabinet-level position charged with addressing Indiana’s drug epidemic, underscoring the urgency of the problem. Democratic Mayor […]

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. According to recently released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Indiana’s already high smoking rate has gotten worse, in contrast to declines in most other states. That is bad news for Hoosiers and our state’s economy. Smoking remains the number one cause of preventable death in the United States and takes a heavy toll on Indiana especially. An estimated 11,100 Hoosiers die each year from smoking, and an additional 1,400 nonsmokers die annually from exposure to secondhand smoke. Smoking in Indiana also translates to $3.3 billion annually in healthcare costs and another […]