Ethics in America’s Epidemic: Navigating Solutions and Hope in the Opioid Crisis

Opioid use and the addiction that can follow have, in recent decades, become an enduring and profound public health crisis. How did this problem reach epidemic proportions, and where does it stand today? What tensions define debates about how to mitigate the drugs’ harms? How can we most effectively treat addiction, especially in light of stigma and disparities? And how can we begin to repair communities that these drugs have impacted?

Beth Macy, bestselling author of Dopesick and Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis, will discuss the US opioid epidemic and the ethical issues that accompany it, including how we can move forward from the crisis and rebuild affected communities. Ms. Macy will be joined in conversation by Perri Peltz, a journalist, public health advocate, and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker known for the HBO documentary Warning: This Drug May Kill You, which explores the devastating effects of opioid addiction and its relationship to big pharma.

The Greenwall Foundation is excited to partner with New York University’s School of Global Public Health to host this year’s William C. Stubing Memorial Lecture in person in New York City and online. The event will begin with a reception at 5:30pm ET, followed by the moderated conversation beginning at 6:30pm ET. An audience question-and-answer session will follow. Register to attend the event in person or online here; registration is free and open to all, but in-person seating is limited.