The Killing Drugs: Synthetic Opioids around the World

Host Vanda Felbab-Brown speaks with Dr. Nicole Gastala and Dr. Harold Pollack about the challenges in reducing opioid use disorder in the U.S. They discuss the effectiveness of medication-assisted treatment and explore barriers like stigma, socioeconomic disparities, rural access issues, and insufficient insurance coverage. The conversation emphasizes the need to expand Medicaid, build family support, and reduce stigma within the medical community.

Show notes and transcript.

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Learn more at: Brookings.edu/KillingDrugs

In the show's second episode, host Vanda Felbab-Brown talks with Dr. Peter Reuter and Dr. Greg Midgette, criminology professors at the University of Maryland, about the current state of the U.S. drug market, discussing changes to U.S. consumption patterns from cocaine to various opioids. The episode also explores the dramatic rise in lethality in the U.S. drug market, not just because of the widespread prevalence of fentanyl, but also because of the increasing potency of methamphetamine.

Show notes and transcript.

Brought to you by the Brookings Podcast Network.

Learn more at: Brookings.edu/KillingDrugs

In the show's first episode, host Vanda Felbab-Brown speaks with Dr. Jonathan Caulkins, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, about the unique challenges that synthetic drugs, and particularly synthetic opioids, pose for policy. After laying out the history of drug use in the United States and the origins of the fentanyl epidemic, they discuss the pros and cons of a wide range of policies—from various law enforcement approaches to prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and prescribed safer supply.

Show notes and transcript.

Brought to you by the Brookings Podcast Network.

Learn more at: Brookings.edu/KillingDrugs

Over 100,000 Americans are dying of drug overdoses annually. On The Killing Drugs: Synthetic Opioids around the World, host Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, interviews leading experts on the devastating synthetic opioid crisis to find policies that can save lives in the United States and around the world.

Brought to you by the Brookings Podcast Network.

Learn more at: Brookings.edu/KillingDrugs