Ep. 75 - Harm Reduction: Marvelous, Misguided, or Misunderstood? - Dr. Dan Ciccarone

In today's episode, Dr. Dan Ciccarone joins us to talk about the Three Waves of the opioid epidemic, what Harm Reduction is, what it isn't, and where we've gone wrong with it. Dr. Ciccarone has studied drugs and addiction for more than two decades, combining his passion for people's individual lives as a medical doctor and his interest in data as a researcher. He is the Justine Miner Professor in Addiction Medicine in the department of Family and Community Medicine, at UCSF. He has been principal or co-investigator on numerous National Institutes of Health-sponsored public health research projects, including his current Synthetics in Combination study. He is a recognized international scholar on the medical, public health, and public policy dimensions of substance use, risk, and consequences. He consults for numerous private and public entities including the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the CDC and the FDA. For over 20 years, Dr. Ciccarone has been actively involved in expanding the use of clinical harm reduction technologies and services such as naloxone, buprenorphine, and drug checking. He has provided harm reduction-based clinical services at several San Francisco syringe exchanges and is currently the volunteer Medical Director of Remedy Alliance, the US’ largest not-for-profit wholesale distributor of naloxone. To learn more about Dr. Ciccarone's work visit: https://profiles.ucsf.edu/daniel.ciccarone