The Cree Project's mission: to address the nationwide epidemic of Opioid Use Disorder through education and outreach.

The Cree Project: Why?
Current research finds that opioid abuse follows a basic template among young adults, and begins with non-prescription use around age 16, most often transitioning to heroin use within 4 years (1).

The cause of this abuse – or what is now termed Opioid Use Disorder, began in the mid 90’s with the introduction and aggressive marketing of the prescription opioid painkiller Oxycontin by Purdue Pharmaceutical company, which is owned by the Sackler family.

As of October 2019, Purdue is preparing to declare bankruptcy in the face of its culpability in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people over the last two and a half decades. In the United States, from “1997 to 2007, opioid prescriptions steadily rose 700%, cresting in 2012 when nearly 260 million opioid prescriptions were written,” while deaths by opioid overdose “increased by nearly 600% from 1999 to 2017,” (2).

References

1. Guarino, Honoria, et al. “Young Adults' Opioid Use Trajectories: From Nonmedical Prescription Opioid Use to Heroin, Drug Injection, Drug Treatment and Overdose.” Addictive Behaviors, vol. 86, 2018, pp. 118–123., https://doi.org/doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.04.017.

2. Hodge, J. G., Gulinson, C., Barraza, L., Johnson, W., Hensley, D., & Augur, H. (2018). Exploring Legal and Policy Responses to Opioids: America’s Worst Public Health Emergency. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3293347

In May of 2016, The Cree Project was granted its 501(c)(3) status in the state of Arizona.