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703 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 7 (2022)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0703 and id is 1 raw text is: The Social and Community Consequences of the Opioid Epidemic By RAJEEV DAROLIA and COLLEEN HEFLIN We provide a brief orientation to the articles that com- prise this volume, which is an effort to understand the consequences of the opioid epidemic in a variety of societal and community domains. These domains include child welfare, living arrangements, education, food insecurity, housing, and public budgets, and they are often paid scant attention compared to research that focuses on the direct effects of opioid use. We give an overview of the articles that comprise this volume and discuss the ways in which they contribute new empirical insights on the consequences of the opioid crisis in the U.S. and Canada. We conclude with thoughts on the challenges inherent in this work, insights about how this volume of research might help us understand the broader reach of the epidemic, and how it helps in the development of prosocial public policies. Keywords: opioids; education; food insecurity; child welfare; homelessness The COVID-19 pandemic has dominated much of the attention our nation has paid to public health in the past few years, yet the opioid epidemic has continued to rage on in the U.S. and Canada. The number of opioid- involved overdose deaths markedly grew over the 20 years leading up to the COVID-19 pan- demic: in 2019, almost 50,000 people died from an opioid overdose in the U.S., almost sixfold the level from 2000.1 In 2020, the number of Rajeev Darolia (rajeev.darolia@uky.edu) is the Wendell H. Ford Professor of Public Policy, professor of public policy and economics, associate dean for research of the Graduate School, and associate director for the Center for Poverty Research at the University of Kentucky. Colleen Heflin (cmheflin@syr.edu) is the chair and pro- fessor of public administration and international affairs, associate dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenshipr and Public Affairs, and senior research associate in the Center for Policy Research and the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion at Syracuse University. Correspondence: Rajeev.Darolia@uky.edu DOI: 10.1177/00027162231157569 ANNALS, AAPSS, 703, September 2022