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government officials to traffic illicit drugs into the United States, conceal and launder their illicit proceeds, purchase and distribute firearms, and move them across and out of the United States. Effectively countering this broad network of facilitators requires HIDTA Overdose Response Strategy Public Health and Public Safety Collaboration Success The Overdose Response Strategy (ORS) is an unprecedented and unique collaboration between public health and public safety sectors, created to help local communities reduce overdoses by sharing timely data and innovative drug overdose prevention strategies. The mission of the ORS is to help communities reduce fatal and nonfatal overdoses by developing and sharing information about heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other drugs across agencies and by offering evidence-based intervention strategies. The ORS is implemented by state teams made up of Drug Intelligence Officers (DIOs) and Public Health Analysts (PHAs) who swiftly exchange data, building the evidence for overdose prevention and response initiatives and allowing for earlier warnings and informed decision-making. DIOs working in the ORS track and relay information regarding sentinel arrests, seizures, and other incidents to law enforcement agencies at all levels of government. PHAs form a critical link across public health entities to share actionable information to identify and stop overdose events. Annual ORS Cornerstone Projects leverage this network to gather new information about emerging trends or promising strategies. One such project focused on overdose prevention services in jails. PHAs and DIOs implemented surveys and interviews with justice professionals in 36 jails across 20 states to examine services in jails serving the counties most affected by the opioid overdose crisis. To increase the uptake of findings from this project, ORS teams worked directly with local partners on the development of jail-based overdose prevention programs to discuss best practices, helpful resources, and challenges. Teams also hosted webinars featuring how local champions from across the country built and implemented their own overdose prevention programs. This effort engaged more than 30 agencies and organizations about implementing or expanding local jail-based overdose prevention programs. These partners include sheriff’s offices, harm reduction groups, state substance use authorities, and state criminal justice agencies. At least 12 local jails are currently working with ORS teams to build naloxone distribution into their overdose prevention programming. « « « « « « 80 NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY an approach combining the expertise, perspectives, and authorities of federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial agencies, as well as foreign partners. Multi-jurisdictional task forces, such as the HIDTA task forces, bring together the resources, expertise, and authorities of federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial agencies. These task forces mitigate jurisdictional challenges for law enforcement, such as investigations on Tribal lands and Tribal Trust lands that straddle international borders with Mexico and Canada, where criminal organizations exploit the gaps and seams between jurisdictions to ply their trade. Agencies within DOJ, DHS and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) will prioritize participation in multi-agency task forces aligned against the manufacture and trafficking of illicit drugs; including the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Strike Forces and Task Forces, DEA’s Special Operations Division (SOD), and HSI Border Enforcement Security Task Forces (BESTs), to disrupt and dismantle the most dangerous transnational criminal organizations. Drug interdiction agencies at all levels should seek opportunities to participate in interagency task forces and informationsharing initiatives to maximize the impact of finite interdiction resources. National Drug Control Program Agencies must develop processes and mechanisms to enable intelligence-driven interdictions targeted against organizations of interest. It is crucial that task forces work with their assigned interdicting agencies to develop robust and effective mechanisms to exploit information gleaned from interdiction events in a timely manner in pursuit of criminal organizations. Further, developing national standards for information systems on which federal agencies rely, such as license plate readers, will « « « « « « NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY 81 improve the efficiency of coordinated efforts within and between task forces and help enable intelligence-driven interdiction activities supporting investigations of criminal networks. Robust policy development and oversight will also be necessary to ensure that these systems are not misused and that individuals’ privacy and civil liberties are protected. DOJ, DHS, and USPIS should collaborate with each other and with industry partners to identify and pursue systems suitable for common systems standards development. Principle 2: Deny and disrupt domestic production, trafficking, and distribution of illicit substances. Drug traffickers exploit our highways, railways, airspace, and our mail and express consignment systems inside the United States to distribute illicit drugs across the nation and move illicit proceeds and other contraband, such 

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