(Podcast) Recovery Community Centers Are Changing Everything

Click here to listen on Spotify Naloxone. Access to treatment. Housing. Employment. Educational opportunities. We’re used to hearing about the need for these aspects of recovery. But what about community? A place to gather with others, especially those with similar experiences? That’s where recovery community centers come in. My first

(Podcast) Nashville’s Overdose Co-Response Unit Brings Harm Reduction to Law Enforcement

Click here to listen on Spotify As the drug overdose deaths continue to climb, we have heard more and more Sheriffs and law enforcement officers across the state say “we can’t arrest ourselves out of this problem.” That the criminal justice system plays an important role, but not the only

(Podcast) The Buprenorphine Waiver is Gone…Now What?

Click here to listen on Spotify There have been huge changes at the federal level regarding the prescribing of medications for opioid use disorder, particularly regarding buprenorphine. For two decades since the DATA 2000 law, addiction clinicians had to get a specialized waiver through the DEA to prescribe buprenorphine, and

(Podcast) How Law Enforcement is Rethinking Mental Health and Addiction

Click here to listen on Spotify If anyone has gotten a true bird’s eye view of the drug problem in the United States, it’s someone like Special Agent Karl Colder of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. From starting in Philadelphia when crack cocaine was the top concern to overseeing the

(Podcast) Training and Empowering Musicians to Prevent Overdose

TEMPO, or Training and Empowering Musicians to Prevent Overdoses, is a multi-coalition and nonprofit program to distribute naloxone and train musicians and concert venue workers to identify and prevent opioid overdoses. TEMPO has recently made waves in Nashville with a pilot program in partnership with Hikma, who makes Kloxxado, as

(Podcast) Are More Syringe Service Programs Coming to Rural Tennessee?

My guest this month is Karen Pershing, executive director of Metro Drug Coalition. In the last legislative session, Karen played a significant role in pushing for a bill that reduced the barrier to opening new syringe service programs in rural Tennessee. In this episode, we discuss the impact of the

(Podcast) The Kids Are Alright: Meet the Rocky Top Recovery Ambassadors

The Rocky Top Recovery Ambassadors are a group of college students, undergrad and grad, that identify as being in recovery and or having a mental health disorder. Building a community on campus of students wanting a safer, sober college experience, the ambassadors hosted weekly all-recovery meetings and mental health events,

(Podcast) What’s Changing on College Campuses in Tennessee?

In 2020, the TN Together Student Survey found that the average age for first using a substance was 13 to 14 years old. Identifying and intervening at that age is thus crucial. Most of the time, however, the problem isn’t caught until later: usually when the person is college aged.

(Podcast) How Peer Recovery Patches Treatment Gaps

If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you know that there is strong evidence for the effectiveness of addiction treatment, and that the biggest obstacle we face in combating the overdose crisis is an overall lack of access to that treatment. Health insurance is of course a

(Podcast) Organizational Failure: How Bad Business Caused the Opioid Crisis

New podcast episode: Organizational failure; how bad business caused the opioid crisis

Purdue Pharma. Johnson and Johnson. CVS. Walgreens. I could keep going. Drug manufacturers and distributors have rightly come under scrutiny in light of the opioid abatement settlements. As these companies start paying hundreds of millions of dollars out across the country, in an effort to try to make up for

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