32 3. Reduce the use of opioids for pain mitigation The literature abounds with research and stories of how individual patients became addicted to opioids for pain management and how such addiction was sustained long beyond that need. A clear consensus has emerged that one very important way to reduce the use and misuse of prescription drugs, as well as illicit drugs, is to control and limit the use of opioids for pain management. This strategy requires a substantial educational effort aimed at physicians and patients about the risks and cautions in the use of opioids for this purpose. In a real sense, the effort under this play seeks to change the culture of pain management to provide more of a focus on protocols for weaning patients from the use of opioids. The Chronic Pain Initiative (CPI), a project of Project Lazarus and Community Care of North Carolina, lists some activities that have been successfully implemented: • Promoting adoption of the CPI toolkit for primary care providers, emergency departments and care managers. • One-on-one provider education or “academic detailing” on pain management. • Continuing medical education sessions on pain management, appropriate prescribing and diversion control. • Continuing education for pharmacists on diversion, forgery and the use of the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP). • Promoting provider and dispenser use of the PDMP. . • Information concerning the Good Samaritan Law and prescribing naloxone.45 Another example of how to build a collaborative effort is reflected in the work of the Northern Shenandoah Valley Substance Abuse Coalition in the Commonwealth of Virginia. NSVSAC46 is a coalition of law enforcement, health care, substance abuse treatment, and youth advocacy organizations and families impacted by substance abuse and addiction in the state’s Winchester region. The group formed in May 2014 following a community heroin summit in Winchester convened by the Northwest Virginia Regional Drug Task Force.