NYU GPH recently hosted the 2024 William C. Stubing Memorial Lecture, in partnership with The Greenwall Foundation and the NYU Center for Bioethics. The focus was on understanding and navigating the U.S. opioid epidemic and related ethical issues it raises.
Bestselling author Beth Macy was a reporter for The Roanoke Times in Virginia in 2012 when she was assigned to chronicle the stories of two families in the wealthy suburbs, both with sons who had become addicted to opioids. One of those young men taught Macy the meaning of the word “dopesick”—“that excruciating feeling of being in withdrawal” that an addicted person would do anything to avoid.
Macy wound up writing a three-part newspaper series that shocked readers with the revelation that “wealthy white kids” were becoming addicted to heroin. Users typically started with legally prescribed painkillers like OxyContin. When it stopped working or became too difficult to obtain, they moved on to heroin; when that stopped working they turned to fentanyl. Recognizing that the crisis was only getting worse, Macy decided to write Dopesick, her investigation of the opioid crisis.
In this recording, Macy is joined by journalist and Emmy Award-winning documentarian Perri Peltz for an insightful conversation at the 2024 William C. Stubing Memorial Lecture.
Watch the Lecture Recording
