157. Misaligned Opioid Policies. Guests, Leo Beletsky & Jennifer Oliva.

I am joined by guests Leo Beletsky & Jennifer Oliva. Leo is a Professor of Law and Health Sciences and the Faculty Director of the Health in Justice Action Lab at Northeastern University School of Law. He holds a joint appointment with the Bouvé College of Health Sciences. He has broad expertise and an enviable research and publication record in the public health impact of laws and their enforcement, with special focus on drug overdose, infectious disease transmission and the role of the criminal justice system as a structural determinant of health. Jennifer is an Associate Professor at West Virginia University in the College of Law and School of Public Health. This Spring she has been a visiting research scholar at The Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School. In the Fall she will be joining the faculty at Seton Hall Law School. Her work has been published by or is forthcoming in the Duke Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, North Carolina Law Review, and the George Mason Law Review. We discussed the conceptual and practical flaws in Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs), on which see these great articles by Leo and by Jenn, opioidphobic moves such as Michigan’s NonOpioid Advance Directive, the apparent animosity of federal prosecutors towards evidence-based public health initiatives like SEPs or SIFs, some of which is the subject of ongoing litigation. And of course we talked about the role of social determinants on which, again, see Leo or structural determinants on which I have written.