Panel:
Pleasure and Pain: Public Policy Towards Substance Use and Abuse
(Health Policy)
Friday, November 4, 2016: 10:15 AM-11:45 AM
Columbia 10 (Washington Hilton)
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
Panel Organizers: Donald Kenkel, Cornell University
Panel Chairs: Johanna Catherine Maclean, Temple University
Discussants: Clark Nardinelli, U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Sean Lyons, Congressional Budget Office
The goal of this Panel is to bring new insights from empirical research to help craft more effective policies towards substance use and abuse. Rapid changes in substance use and abuse create both challenges and opportunities for policy makers. Previously illegal marijuana is now being used to treat chronic pain. Legal opioids used to treat chronic pain are now increasingly being abused. The Food and Drug Administration has broad new regulatory power over the tobacco industry. An innovative product -- the electronic cigarette -- is a potentially disruptive technology. Crafting effective public policies towards each of these substances requires empirical evidence on the difficult tradeoffs involved. This Panel involves academic researchers from public health, law, public policy, and economics. The discussants will provide the perspective of public sector practitioners.
