This report describes the features and activities of the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Assistance's (BJA's) Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Site-based Program (COAP).
The COAP was developed as part of the federal Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA). The purpose of the COAP is to provide financial and technical assistance to states, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments to plan, develop, and implement comprehensive efforts to identify, respond to, treat, and support those impacted by the opioid epidemic. The Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) has been incorporated into the FY 2019 COAP solicitation. Its purpose is to improve collaboration and strategic decision-making among regulatory and law enforcement agencies and public health entities in addressing prescription drug and opioid abuse, to save lives, and to reduce crime. Since 2017, BJA has supported innovative work in just over 200 COAP sites. Ten types of activities supported under the COAP are listed. They include the diversion of nonviolent drug offenders from prosecution and their enlistment in treatment services; increases in alternatives to incarceration and improvement in access to quality treatment for the criminal justice population; the expansion of evidence-based treatment in jails and prisons and supporting services upon reentry; and the expansion of evidence-based treatment in jails and prisons, along with supporting services upon reentry.