The US is in the midst of a major public health crisis. Tens of thousands of deaths are directly attributable to overdose over the past two decades and no end is in sight. Reeling from the failures of the “war on drugs”, many argue for new approaches grounded more firmly in public health and human centred drug policies. Join some of the world’s leading experts on this topic to learn how the US can learn the lessons of past policy failures and policies that provide greater hope to help end the overdose crisis.

Michel Kazatchkine (@Kazatchkine) is Commissioner of the Global Commission on Drug Policy

Katherine Pettus (@kpettus) is Advocacy Officer, International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care.

Peter Reuter is Professor in the School of Public Policy and the Department of Criminology at the University of Maryland.

Denise Tomasini-Joshi (@DMTJoshi) is a division director with the Open Society Public Health Program, where she leads the program’s work on health, law, and equality around the globe.

John Collins (@JCollinsIDPU) is Executive Director of the LSE’s International Drug Policy Unit (IDPU). 

The LSE's United States Centre (@LSE_US) is a hub for global expertise, analysis and commentary on America. Our mission is to promote policy-relevant and internationally-oriented scholarship to meet the growing demand for fresh analysis and critical debate on the United States.

The International Drug Policy Unit (IDPU) is a cross-regional and multidisciplinary project, designed to establish a global centre for excellence in the study of international drug policy. 

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #OverDoseCrisis

Podcast

A podcast of this event is available to download from Ending the US Overdose Crisis: lessons from other times and places.

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.