SMART Policy Podcast

It might sound surprising, but back in the 2000s, some of the first people to realize how bad the opioid crisis was becoming were county leaders - if only because county budgets fund most of the services hit directly by the consequences of overdose, like jails, ambulance services, law enforcement, and death investigations.

However, what counties typically don’t have are most of the tools to directly prevent, treat and support recovery from substance use disorder. 

Enter the opioid settlements, which must be spent on approved remediation uses and within certain timelines.  And because substance use disorder is complex, impacting so many different facets of life, effectively spending these dollars involves equally complex considerations. 

Today’s guests are David Connor, Executive Director of the Tennessee County Services Association, and Dr. Jennifer Tourville, Executive Director of the UT SMART Initiative - the organization that produces this podcast. TCSA and SMART have been working closely with county governments for years on the overdose crisis, and SMART is now a contracted partner with the Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council to provide technical assistance on managing the funds. 

In this episode, we talk about the types of challenges and considerations county leaders have when making decisions about this money. The realities of local government - especially in a year with significant electoral turnover across the state - bring notable hoops for leaders to jump through. 

As always, this episode is intended to be educational, and any opinions expressed in this episode reflect those of the guests, and do not represent the opinions of the University of Tennessee.  

Learn more:
TCSA: tncounties.org
SMART: www.smart.tennessee.edu 
TN Opioid Abatement Council: www.tn.gov/oac 

https://smartpolicypodcast.buzzsprout.com/

Arguably the most significant drug policy shift in Tennessee in 2026 was Matthew Davenport’s Law, the complete and total ban on kratom products, which went into effect on July 1st. The law is named after a Chattanooga individual who tragically lost his life in 2024 at the age of 27 to a medication interaction involving kratom and prescribed medications. 

Matthew Davenport’s Law passed the General Assembly overwhelmingly, with bipartisan support. There was, however, a bipartisan group of legislators that voted against the ban or who abstained from voting altogether. 

To get to the bottom of this debate, I wanted to have a frank discussion with experts who were on both sides of the fence of ban versus regulations. For the perspective of pro-regulations, I reached out to Dr. Kirsten Smith, an addiction researcher and social worker, and Marissa Kluk, a researcher with a public health background. Both of them are in recovery from substance use disorder. For the perspective in favor of the ban, I spoke with Tommy Farmer, former director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Dangerous Drug Task Force. 

This episode is intended to be solely educational, and to allow deeper investigation into these opposing viewpoints. The point of this episode is to simply answer the question: what is kratom, and why did it get banned in Tennessee? 

All of the opinions expressed in this episode are solely of the guests, and do not represent the opinion or beliefs of the University of Tennessee. 

On April 18th, 2026, President Trump signed Executive Order 14401, which directs federal agencies to accelerate research into psychedelic medications for the treatment of serious mental illness, including substance use disorder. One of the most prominent substances mentioned in this EO is the alkaloid ibogaine. 

As of this podcast episode, ibogaine is a Schedule I controlled substance in the U.S., meaning that legally it is considered to have a high potential for abuse without any known medical benefits. Its scheduled status also makes it extremely difficult to research. However, treatment with ibogaine is legal in other countries and some promising studies do exist, including a seminal paper by Stanford University looking at brain health in combat veterans with traumatic brain injury. 

Meanwhile, in the same month, the Tennessee legislature passed Public Chapter 1119, which authorized research into ibogaine in secure, clinical contexts. 

This month, we are joined by W. Bryan Hubbard of Americans for Ibogaine and Rikki Harris of TN Voices, two of the organizations advocating for this body of research to expand both here in Tennessee and across the country. 

Ibogaine is not like most psychoactive substances. It is reportedly an intensely unpleasant experience that lasts for many hours, involving vomiting and the risk of heart arrhythmias. There is no illicit market for it like there is for psilocybin or other psychedelics. Further, the original patent has expired, meaning that the private sector has no significant profit motivation to develop this drug on their own. As such, one of the policy options being explored in this debate is a multi-state research compact, where the public sector would effectively be taking a unique role in developing a new medication. 

As always, this episode is intended to be educational, and any opinions expressed in this episode reflect those of the guest, and do not represent the opinions of the University of Tennessee. 

Learn more:
Magnesium–Ibogaine: the Stanford Traumatic Injury to the CNS protocol (MISTIC)
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10878970/pdf/41591_2023_Article_2705.pdf
Americans for Ibogaine: https://www.americansforibogaine.org/ 
TN Voices: https://tnvoices.org/ 
SMART: www.smart.tennessee.edu 

https://smartpolicypodcast.buzzsprout.com/

The arc of the opioid crisis is, by now, familiar to most people. Over-prescribing of legal opioids in the late nineties caused escalating numbers of people to develop use disorders. In the 2000s, new prescribing guidelines and controlled substance monitoring went into effect, and the legal supply of opioids rapidly reduced - so quickly that many people with opioid dependence turned to heroin to stave off withdrawal. But that only made the problem much worse.  And then by the mid 2010s, fentanyl and its multitude of analogues hit the scene and overdose deaths exponentially skyrocketed.  And then the pandemic hit, and the death toll literally doubled. 

Richard J. Baum is one of those few individuals who has had a bird’s eye view of the crisis the whole time. 

Baum served in the Office of National Drug Control Policy through six presidential administrations from the late nineties until he became Acting Director under President Trump. This month he joins us to discuss his perspectives.  

Baum is now Adjunct Lecturer at Georgetown University, where he is teaching a course based on his comprehensive book, Inside America’s Opioid Crisis, which draws on more than three decades of work on national drug policy. In this conversation, we talk about how the crisis unfolded, but focus on the current moment defined by shifting drug trends, unpredictable overdose spikes, a large grey market of unregulated dangerous drugs sold as supplements, and the rise in stimulant use even as fentanyl overdoses decline. 

Baum has learned a lot from his experience on all aspects of this crisis, like treatment, prevention, and how best to inform the public about the dangers of each new drug threat.

As always, any opinions expressed in this episode reflect those of the guest, and do not represent the opinions of the University of Tennessee. 


Learn more:
Richard J. Baum: https://richardjbaum.com/ 
Inside America’s Opioid Crisis: https://richardjbaum.com/book 
SMART: www.smart.tennessee.edu 

https://smartpolicypodcast.buzzsprout.com/

There’s been growing attention to a new chemical in the illicit drug supply: N-Propionitrile Chlorphine, also known as cychlorphine.  On top of being more potent than fentanyl, it’s also extremely hard to detect on toxicology tests. Currently, all deaths attributed to cychlorphine have been identified in the East Tennessee region around Knoxville, but experts believe it is in more areas already - we just haven’t been able to identify it. 

Cychlorphine is an excellent example of why staying on top of new drug trends can be so challenging. This month I am joined by Chris Thomas of the Knox County Regional Forensic Center, Dr. Shravani Durbhakula of Vanberbilt University Medical Center, and Adam Gray of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to discuss the challenges of these new drugs from forensic, clinical, and law enforcement perspectives. 

In this conversation we talk about several of the newer drugs in the supply, the technological and logistical limitations of testing for drugs, and of course, the policy options that could make this problem a little better. 


Learn more:
CFSRE Summary of N-Propionitrile Chlorphine: https://www.cfsre.org/nps-discovery/monographs/n-propionitrile-chlorphine 
Importance of Naloxone with Cychlorphine: https://www.tn.gov/health/news/2026/3/18/tdh-reinforces-importance-of-naloxone-with-rise-in-cychlorphine-fatalities.html 
Knox County Regional Forensic Center: https://www.knoxcounty.org/rfc/ 
Dr. Shravani Durbhakula: https://www.shravanimd.com/about-dr-shravani-durbhakula/ 
SMART: www.smart.tennessee.edu