Harm Reduction Federalism

Benjamin A. Barsky, JD, PhD • Associate Professor of Law • UC College of the Law, San Francisco

Please join us this month for a work-in-progress presentation and discussion led by Ben Barsky.  His work studies health federalism — the system of governance that allocates health law powers between the U.S. government and the states — in the context of the U.S. overdose crisis. The claim he will defend is that many cities and states have recently used their lawmaking powers to reconfigure federal opioid laws in ways that promote democratic power-sharing, progressive legal innovation, and — ultimately — health equality.

Benjamin A. Barsky is Associate Professor of Law at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco and Consortium Advisory Board member of the UCSF-UC Law SF Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy. Barsky’s work sits at the intersection of law, health care policy, and public health ethics. Broadly, his research interrogates the relationship between law and inequalities in health — an issue that he studies using different social scientific methodologies, both qualitative and quantitative. His research has been supported by the Commonwealth Fund, the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Evidence for Action Program. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law, a Master of Bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and B.A. from Johns Hopkins University.

The UCSF Drug Use Research Group (DURG) is a city-wide seminar attended by faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and other Bay Area investigators centering on persons who use drugs.  Started in 2005 after a friendly debate between an epidemiologist and anthropologist on the merits of quantitative versus qualitative research methods, the DURG monthly seminars provide a community platform for new and established investigators to present their work, explore research questions and methods, and to prepare for grant applications and the dissemination of findings in a supportive environment.  The seminar has been successful in cultivating new collaborations and mentorship and in sustaining an interdisciplinary and interprofessional dialogue between those engaged in basic sciences, epidemiology, clinical, and public health research.  

We have returned to in-person meetings.  Our meetings are not recorded.  Please contact us if you’d like to present your work or research ideas for friendly consultation and peer review.