In 2017, in response to demand across the University, the law school convened a first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary seminar on the national opioid crisis. Participants included dozens of law faculty, dozens of medical and public health faculty, and twenty-five students. The course addressed the crisis from all angles—addiction and mental health, criminal law, social justice, race, public health, economics, insurance law and more. The seminar produced approximately 20 academic articles—all co-authored by a member of the law school and a member of the medical school—that were published in a special issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics in the Summer of 2018. In addition, the Center continues to support work on this important topic, including analyses of ongoing litigation.
To learn more about the interdisciplinary seminar and the special issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, check out the "Addressing the Opioid Crisis" episode of The Prescription, in which Yale Law Professors Abbe R. Gluck '00 and Kate Stith and Yale School of Medicine Professor David Fiellin discuss the seminar experience, the resulting articles, and the importance of cross-disciplinary approaches to address complex health care issues like the opioid epidemic.
The articles emerging from the seminar published in Law and the Opioid Crisis: An Inter-Disciplinary Examination 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 201 (2018) include:
Nathan Guevremont ('18), Mark Barnes ('84), and Claudia E. Haupt, “Physician Autonomy and the Opioid Crisis,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 203 (2018).
Joseph R. Schottenfeld ('19), Seth A. Waldman, Abbe R. Gluck ('00), and Daniel G. Tobin, “Pain and Addiction in Specialty and Primary Care: The Bookends of a Crisis,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 220 (2018).
Seth A. Waldman, Joseph R. Schottenfeld ('19), and Abbe R. Gluck ('00), “Treatment Innovation in Orthopedic Surgery: A Case Study from Hospital for Special Surgery,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 238 (2018).
Stephen R. Baldassarri, Ike Lee (YSM '20), Stephen R. Latham, and Gail D’Onofrio, “Debating Medical Utility, Not Futility: Ethical Dilemmas in Treating Critically Ill People Who Use Injection Drugs,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 241 (2018).
Michael Linden ('19), Sam Marullo ('20), Curtis Bone, Declan T. Barry, and Kristen Bell, “Prisoners as Patients: The Opioid Epidemic, Medication-Assisted Treatment, and the Eighth Amendment,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 252 (2018).
Curtis Bone, Lindsay Eysenbach (YSM '20), Kristen Bell, and Declan T. Barry, “Our Ethical Obligation to Treat Opioid Use Disorder in Prisons: A Patient and Physician’s Perspective,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 268 (2018).
Christopher T. Breen (YSM '20) and David A. Fiellin, “Buprenorphine Supply, Access, and Quality: Where We Have Come and the Path Forward,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 272 (2018).
Brian Mund ('18) and Kate Stith, “Buprenorphine MAT as an Imperfect Fix,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 279 (2018).
Rachel L. Rothberg ('19) and Kate Stith, “The Opioid Crisis and Federal Criminal Prosecution,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 292 (2018).
Rachel L. Rothberg ('19) and Kate Stith, “Fentanyl: A Whole New World?,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 314 (2018).
Nick Werle ('18) and Ernesto Zedillo, “We Can’t Go Cold Turkey: Why Suppressing Drug Markets Endangers Society,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 325 (2018).
Ish P. Bhalla, Nina Cohen ('18), Claudia E. Haupt, Kate Stith, and Rocksheng Zhong (YSM '13), “The Role of Civil Commitment in the Opioid Crisis,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 343 (2018).
Abbe R. Gluck ('00), Ashley Hall ('19), and Gregory Curfman, “Civil Litigation and the Opioid Epidemic: The Role of Courts in a National Health Crisis,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 351 (2018).
Andrew M. Parker ('19), Daniel Strunk ('19), and David A. Fiellin, “State Responses to the Opioid Crisis,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 367 (2018).
Quentin Johnson ('18), “Case Study: County-Level Responses to the Opioid Crisis in Northern Kentucky,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 382 (2018).
Ian Ayres ('86) and Amen Jalal, “The Impact of Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs on U.S. Opioid Prescriptions,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 387 (2018).
Keturah James ('19) and Ayana Jordan, "The Opioid Crisis in Black Communities,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 404 (2018).
Robin T. Tipps ('19), Gregory T. Buzzard ('18), and John A. McDougall, “The Opioid Epidemic in Indian Country,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 422 (2018).
Quentin Johnson ('18), Brian Mund ('18), and Paul J. Joudrey, “Improving Rural Access to Opioid Treatment Programs,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 437 (2018).
John Matthew Butler ('18), William C. Becker, and Keith Humphreys, “Big Data and the Opioid Crisis: Balancing Patient Privacy with Public Health,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 440 (2018).
Catherine Martinez ('19), “Cracking the Code: Using Data to Combat the Opioid Crisis,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 454 (2018).
Alex Wang ('19) and Aaron S. Kesselheim, “Government Patent Use to Address the Rising Cost of Naloxone: 28 U.S.C. § 1498 and Evzio,” 46 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 472 (2018).