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The Challenge and the Opportunity of the Contemporary Opioid Epidemic

In the U.S. there have been numerous drug epidemics with different policy responses to each. Author Henry Brownstein will discuss the crack cocaine, methamphetamine and contemporary opioid epidemics, the policy responses to each and their consequences. The contemporary opioid epidemic is atypical and offers both a challenge and an opportunity for drug policy. His talk is sponsored by the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, the Research Center on Violence and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology


About Dr. Brownstein

Henry Brownstein

Henry Brownstein is a research associate with the WVU Research Center on Violence. He has served as the associate dean for research in the Wilder School for Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. Previously he was senior vice president at NORC at the University of Chicago and director of the NORC Division of Substance Abuse, Mental Health and Criminal Justice Studies. Other positions include director of the Drugs and Crime Division at the National Institute of Justice; professor and director of the graduate program in Criminal Justice at the University of Baltimore; chief of statistical services for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services; and principal investigator at Narcotic and Drug Research, Inc. For over 30 years Brownstein has conducted research on drug policy, illicit drug markets and drugs and crime and violence. He is the author and editor of several books and the author of numerous scholarly articles, essays and book chapters on these subjects. Brownstein was awarded the 2017 Senior Scholar Award from the American Sociological Association Section on Alcohol, Drugs and Tobacco.