WVU researcher Henry Brownstein will speak about the challenges and opportunities of the opioid crisis at an event July 11.
The contemporary opioid epidemic is atypical in comparison with other drug epidemics throughout history and that distinction offers both a challenge and an opportunity for drug policymakers, according to a West Virginia University researcher who will speak at an event next week.
Henry Brownstein
Research Associate
WVU Research Center on Violence
“The challenge is to design and implement policies and programs that allow drugs to be available to people who need them when they need them and have an appropriate need for them, to discourage people from misusing or abusing them, to protect people from harming themselves by their drug involvement, to prevent them from harming others or being harmed by others, and to support people who find themselves in trouble with drugs and to help them recover. The opportunity is to take advantage of the social, political and moral ambiguity and uncertainty inherent in the contemporary opioid epidemic and to envision a world with drugs where policy decisions and actions are informed by data, science, knowledge and experience moving us forward toward a fair, comprehensive, coherent and effective drug policy not only for opioids but for all drugs in a way that allows the benefits of having drugs in our lives to outweigh the harms.”
Henry Brownstein audio file (02:30)
Contact: hhb@chbrownstein.com; 410.627.8936
Brownstein will speak at “The Challenge and the Opportunity of the Contemporary Opioid Epidemic” at 1 p.m. July 11 in the Downtown Campus Library (104).
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