Public Health Law Research

  • Read more: Dave Purchase and Naloxone, Life Savers

    Dave Purchase and Naloxone, Life Savers

    By Scott Burris Start with the sad news of the week. Dave Purchase died, aged 73. Dave was the father of needle exchange in the US, which as far as anyone can say started with Dave and a TV tray in disregard of Oregon’s drug paraphernalia law. Dave was a father figure to a whole…

  • Read more: Quick, Effective Public Health Measures

    Quick, Effective Public Health Measures

    By Stephen Latham [cross-posted at his blog, A Blog on Bioethics] I’m freshly back from the annual meeting of the Public Health Law Research program, sponsored by Robert Wood Johnson. At most academic meetings, I prefer schmoozing in the halls to listening to the talks. That’s part personal vice, and part stage-of-career: at this point, it matters more who…

  • Read more: PHLR Annual Meeting Post-Mortem

    PHLR Annual Meeting Post-Mortem

    By Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research This past week, PHLR hosted 150 researchers, lawyers, public health practitioners and others for our fourth annual meeting. With our theme for the conference in mind, “Driving Legal Innovation,” our attendees shared results of evaluations of laws and regulations, offered up suggestions for new ways to…

  • Read more: Where Are We Now: Post 5, Ways of Being Wrong – and Opportunities to be Right

    Where Are We Now: Post 5, Ways of Being Wrong – and Opportunities to be Right

    By Scott Burris The main contests (a summary of previous posts): A lot of people in public health practice seem to be (appropriately) concerned about our public health infrastructure – the agencies within public health systems where day to day work is done. Public health infrastructure tends to get taken for granted and neglected. Core…

  • Read more: Where Are We Now: Post 4, Looking in the Mirror, or 3 Games in Public Health

    Where Are We Now: Post 4, Looking in the Mirror, or 3 Games in Public Health

    By Scott Burris In a well-known exchange, Richard Epstein argued that modern public health had strayed far outside its traditional and proper work of preventing epidemics and injuries into a realm of social engineering in which it lacked both competence and legitimacy. William Novak, the historian, disagreed, emphasizing the continuity of our public quest for…

  • Read more: Where Are We Now: Post 3, The Agony (and Potential Ecstasy) of Defeat

    Where Are We Now: Post 3, The Agony (and Potential Ecstasy) of Defeat

    By Scott Burris Law has been an extremely effective mode of public health intervention in the last thirty years, which means that proponents of its use have won more than a few tough political battles.  Nonetheless, it is hard to escape the fact that, in recent years, the public health side has been getting killed…

  • Read more: Researchers to Lawmakers: Naloxone Distribution to Prevent Overdose Death is Cost-Effective

    Researchers to Lawmakers: Naloxone Distribution to Prevent Overdose Death is Cost-Effective

    By Scott Burris Phil Coffin and Sean Sullivan have published a cost-effectiveness study of interventions that equip heroin users and others to administer naloxone in the event of a witnessed opioid overdose.  Naloxone is the standard antidote, and can easily be administered by lay people with a minimum amount of training.  Family members and friends…

  • Read more: The State of Public Health Law: Post I, “Who Am I? Why am I Here?”

    The State of Public Health Law: Post I, “Who Am I? Why am I Here?”

    By Scott Burris Early in January, Lindsay Wiley and the Network for Public Health Law will convene a group of health law professors and (and a few colleagues from public health law practice) in Washington.  They will be spending a couple of days advancing a conversation about how academic health lawyers can make a bigger…

  • Read more: Gun Violence: Lessons Learned from Car Crashes

    Gun Violence: Lessons Learned from Car Crashes

    By Scott Burris, JD “I have an absolute right to drive any vehicle I want, on any road, at any time, at any speed, and under any conditions.” That’s an argument few people would take seriously. And few people would take seriously the argument that we should ban or substantially limit automobile use, despite the…

  • Read more: Ohio Joins In

    Ohio Joins In

    By Hosea H. Harvey, JD, PhD Last week, Ohio joined the vast majority of states that have enacted laws designed to reduce long-term health consequences for youth athletes who suffer concussions (technically, traumatic brain injuries or TBIs) in organized youth sports activities.  Based on my research for an upcoming article “Reducing Traumatic Brain Injuries in…