HSR Seminar: Travis Donahoe, PhD, MPH

November 2, 2023 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Zoom Meeting

Registration Required: Register Here

This presentation will examine a major way that federal policy has responded to the US opioid crisis, which is by closing prescribers, dispensers, and distributors that inappropriately supplied prescription opioids. Theory is unclear about whether these supplier enforcement actions will reduce harms from opioids or simply shift opioid users to other suppliers or more dangerous substitute drugs (such as heroin). Exploiting differences in the timing and extent of enforcement actions across counties from 2006 to 2014 (when prescription opioid supply was at its highest), I found that enforcement actions caused large reductions in opioid supply and death rates. Enforcement was rare over this period; however, empirical evidence shows that increasing enforcement would have caused considerable reductions in mortality.