More Americans die every year of overdose than died in the entire course of the 1955-75 Vietnam conflict. Overdose has helped reduce aggregate US life expectancy for three years in a row—something that has not happened in 100 years, including at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Measured by loss-of-life, opiate-related overdose is the most acute national health crisis of our lifetimes.

Student researchers will work closely with the client, Broken No More, a national organization of parents and families who have lost family members to opioid use. The organization supports grieving members and also pushes forward evidence-based, public health interventions to the opioid epidemic.

This practicum explores legal approaches to a more comprehensive and thoughtful understanding to the Opioid Epidemic. The research team will evaluate whether various stakeholders have fulfilled their legal and regulatory obligations to respond to the epidemic, including whether hospitals and insurers fulfill their implied “duty of care.”  The questions addressed in this practicum could have life-saving impact on people currently suffering from opioid use disorder.

The course seeks to build a diverse research team with students from law, public policy, medicine, public health, and sociology.

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