E4: Dr. Brian Hurley

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Brian Hurley, a leading voice in addiction medicine and the Medical Director of Substance Abuse Prevention and Control for Los Angeles County. We dive into the evolving landscape of substance use, including emerging threats like fentanyl analogs and “tranq”-related compounds, and what they mean for overdose risk and response. Dr. Hurley breaks down how today’s drug supply is changing, why traditional approaches are shifting, and what a more patient-centered system of care looks like. Brian Hurley, MD, MBA, DFASAM is an addiction psychiatrist and serves as the Medical Director of the Bureau of Substance Abuse Prevention and Control for Los Angeles County. He is also affiliated with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and is a UCLA Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar. His work focuses on integrating addiction treatment into general healthcare settings and building a coordinated continuum of care for individuals with substance use disorders across public health systems. Dr. Hurley is board certified in psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, and addiction medicine. He completed a fellowship in addiction psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine and his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital, where he served as Chief Resident in Addiction Psychiatry. He earned his MD and MBA from the University of Southern California, attending both the Keck School of Medicine and the Marshall School of Business. He currently serves as Treasurer of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and contributes to the addiction psychiatry subspecialty exam writing committee of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Dr. Hurley is also active within the American Association of Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association. He is a Fellow of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry and was a 2012 American College of Psychiatrists Laughlin Fellow. He previously served on the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Hurley envisions a world transformed through the effective prevention and treatment of addiction.