Featuring:

• [Moderator] Stacey McKenna, Resident Senior Fellow, Integrated Harm Reduction, R Street Institute

• Aaron Ferguson, Regional Outreach Manager, Community Medical Centers (an opioid treatment program)

• Dr. Sam Manages, Medical Director and Behavioral Health and Addiction Physician, Pines Health Services

• Dr. Paul Joudrey, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Center for Research on Health Care, University of Pittsburgh

• Noa Krawczyk, Assistant Professor, Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Overview:

How should the public and policymakers view methadone—and methadone diversion—in the context of the larger overdose crisis?

Methadone is a “gold standard” treatment for long-term opioid use disorder (OUD), with proven, lifesaving success rates greater than non-medication treatment options. But it is highly regulated, with myriad barriers to access that prevent many people from pursuing treatment. As the national conversation on expanding methadone access gets louder, we must separate fact from fiction. 

Congress is currently considering legislation to decrease methadone regulation. Opponents say these efforts will increase diversion—the sharing or sale of methadone to a person to whom it was not prescribed—and view this risk as a reason not to change the status quo. However, many experts in OUD believe methadone diversion happens precisely because people can’t access the medication through formal channels. In this panel, several such experts will argue that diversion concerns must be balanced against the significant potential for methadone to save more lives, make communities safer, and help more people regain control of their lives through long-term recovery.

Everyone engages in behaviors that can harm their health, and many of us take measures to decrease those health risks—even things like wearing a seatbelt or limiting alcohol consumption count toward harm reduction. Harm reduction is the idea that abstinence-only approaches do not work well at the population level and that there are strategies available to make risky behaviors less harmful. When it comes to tobacco, adult smokers may reduce harms associated with combustible tobacco products by switching to less dangerous nicotine delivery systems such as e-cigarettes or snus.

Featuring:

• [Moderator] Chelsea Boyd, Fellow, R Street Institute

• Michael Pesko, Associate Professor, Georgia State University

• Helen Redmond, Senior Editor and Multi-Media Journalist, Filter

• Pritika Kumar, Senior Fellow, R Street Institute

Silver bullets. Big bangs. Miracles. In the search for answers to our pressing problems — from climate change to global pandemics — people have hoped for magical solutions that would wish them away with the snap of a finger. In reality, we need practical solutions that often require picking the least bad option. This forum discusses and debates practical approaches grounded in experience to applying risk management and harm reduction techniques to tough problems.

Featuring:

• [Moderator] Richard Crespin, Chief Executive Officer, CollaborateUp

• Mazen Saleh, Policy Director, Integrated Harm Reduction

• Kye Young, Vice President of Partnerships and Development, Foundation for Climate Restoration

• Lt. Diane Goldstein, Executive Director, Law Enforcement Action Partnership

• Dr. Jallal Toufiq, Head of the National Centre for Drug Abuse Prevention and Research in Morocco

Everyone engages in behaviors that can harm their health, and many of us take measures to decrease these health risks. If you wear your seatbelt while driving or limit your alcohol consumption, you are engaging in harm reduction. Harm reduction is the idea that abstinence-only approaches do not work well at the population level and that there are strategies available to make risky behaviors less harmful.

Experts from several areas of harm reduction discussed the benefits and challenges associated with harm reduction approaches, policies that can advance harm reduction, their personal experiences with harm reduction services and the importance of providing a range of harm reduction services to the public. Panelists spoke to the importance of harm reduction for illegal drug use, sexual health, tobacco use and more.

Featuring:

• Damon Jacobs, Associate Fellow, R Street Institute

• Lisa Raville, Executive Director, Harm Reduction Action Center

• Pritika Kumar, Senior Fellow, R Street Institute

• Brendan Cox, Chief (Ret.), Albany Police Department

Congress recently banned the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 21, and e-cigarette regulation continues to be a hot topic on Capitol Hill. Some members have called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to remove all flavored tobacco products from the market. What impact would a flavor ban have on overall public health? What role do e-cigarettes play as a harm reduction tool? Our panel of distinguished experts discussed the current state of play surrounding e-cigarette regulation and tobacco harm reduction.

Featuring:

• [Moderator]Mazen Saleh, Associate Vice President, R Street Institute

• Guy Bentley, Director of Consumer Freedom Research, Reason Foundation

• Chelsea Boyd, Fellow, Harm Reduction, R Street Institute