Rutgers Addiction Research Center (RARC)

TRACC Seminar Series with Dr. Kechna Cadet: "Polysubstance Use: The Fourth Wave of the Opioid Epidemic...The Norm, Not the Exception”.
2024-03-07 12:30 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Virtual
On the day of the event, click the Zoom link to join: https://ccny.zoom.us/j/89790452839?pwd=[REDACTED]

BHI Hybrid Seminar with Dr. Lauren Hobbs "Endogenous opioids in the regulation of striatal circuits and cocaine reward"
2024-03-07 11:00 - 12:00 | Psychology Building, 152 Frelinghuysen Rd, Piscataway, NJ, 08854
Date: Thursday, March 7, 2024
Time: 11:00 AM EST
Location: Psychology, Room 105, Busch Campus, Piscataway
Zoom Meeting Link: CLICK HERE
Zoom Meeting ID: 959 2468 3840; Password: BHI
This event is Hosted by the BHI Junior Faculty Working Group.

CPDD Webinar - Media Training with Reporting on Addiction
2024-03-05 13:00 - 14:00 | Virtual
A virtual webinar focused on “Media Training with Reporting on Addiction” will be hosted by the Communications Committee and led by Jonathan Stoltman and Ashton Marra, co-directors of Reporting on Addiction. The webinar will provide tips on communicating science effectively and working with the media to share your research accurately and concisely. Recommendations for working with journalists, including pitching ideas and op-eds, will also be reviewed.
Registration – click here!

Rutgers Psychiatry Grand Rounds with Dr. Christine Vinci - "Mindfulness-based Interventions for Smoking Cessation"
2024-03-05 11:00 - 12:30 | Virtual
Meeting URL: https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/93346312802?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 933 4631 2802
Password: [REDACTED]

Knock Out Opioid Use Learning Series - Emerging Threats Within the Opioid Crisis Webinar
2024-02-29 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual
Learning opportunities in safe prescribing for physicians, dentists, nurses and any other medical practitioners authorized to prescribe opioid-based painkillers and inform all prescribers on the local laws that pertain to the prescribing of opioids.

PANELISTS

Matthew Salzman, MD, MPH

Matthew Salzman is an associate professor in emergency medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, as well as the medical director of the Addiction Medicine Consult Liaison Service at Cooper University Healthcare and the medical director of Research for the Division of Toxicology and Addiction Medicine. He also serves as a volunteer consultant in toxicology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Poison Control Center. Dr. Salzman graduated from Jefferson Medical College and then completed residency training in emergency medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine. Upon completing residency, Salzman remained at Drexel as a fellow in medical toxicology. He recently graduated from the Master of Public Health program at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

Bruce Ruck, BS, Pharm.D., DABAT

Bruce Ruck is the managing director of the New Jersey Poison Center, which is in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark. Dr. Ruck graduated from St. John’s University with a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy in 1986 and Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 1988. He then went on to complete a clinical Pharmacy Residency at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida in 1989. Dr. Ruck then joined Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in a split position between the Pharmacy and NJ Poison Center. He moved full-time to University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), now Rutgers School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, in January 2002 with the poison center.

Robert E. Taylor Memorial Lecture: Changing the Conversation Around Alcohol in the US—Acknowledging the Elephant in the Room
2024-02-28 02:00 - 15:00 | Virtual
Robert E. Taylor Memorial Lecture: “Changing the Conversation Around Alcohol in the United States – Acknowledging the Elephant in the Room”
Presented by: George F. Koob, Ph.D.
NIAAA Director
Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 2:00 PM
Join Zoom Meeting: https://howard.zoom.us/j/2199005710?omn=87382628848
Meeting ID: 219 900 5710
Passcode: [REDACTED]
For more information E-mail: ddelgado@howard.edu
Sponsored by the: Department of Pharmacology, Howard University College of Medicine

School of Health Professions Virtual Panel: Insight into Awareness of Eating Disorders: Unique Perspectives from Professionals and Clients
2024-02-27 07:30 - 20:30 | Virtual
Department of Clinical & Preventive Nutrition Sciences & Rutgers Student Dietetic Association Presents:
Insight into Awareness of Eating Disorders: Unique Perspectives from Professionals and Clients
Join us for a virtual panel discussion featuring healthcare professional and lived experience advocates.
Join the zoom meeting: https://go.rutgers.edu/sik2zjjl

EDAW 2024 Panel

GSAPP Webinar - Opioid Use within the Affectional and Gender Diverse Populations (LGBTQ+)
2024-02-23 13:00 - 14:00 | Virtual
Opioid use disorder has reached an alarming rate in the United States. As more and more people struggle with opioids, it is important for behavioral healthcare workers to understand how to best support people in need; specifically, members that identify within the affectional and gender diverse community. Members of this community are disproportionately affected by substance use disorders, inclusive of the opioid epidemic. This presentation will highlight the impact that opioid use disorder has on sexual and gender diverse populations, best practices, trauma-informed care, and behavioral health integration into primary care.
Live Zoom Webinar
Instructor: Anthony Zazzarino, PhD

National Harm Reduction Coalition Webinar - Dismantling Drug Related Stigma 101
2024-02-23 12:00 - 15:00 | Virtual
Save your spot for next month’s free virtual Foundational Fridays session, “Dismantling Drug-Related Stigma,” Feb. 23 from 12 p.m.-2 p.m. EST! In this webinar, we’ll discuss concepts of social inequalities people who use drugs face, stigma they experience, & how this impacts their ability to access services. We’ll explore how negative judgment can permeate nearly every aspect of their lives & how internalized stigma can lead to harmful behaviors. Through the session, we’ll also promote effective engagement skills w/ people who are actively using drugs, developing strategies to build more genuine & productive relationships w/ clients.

Register here: http://bit.ly/DismantlingDrugRelatedStigma24

SSW Webinar - Medical and Legal Marijuana in NJ: Practice and Policy Issues
2024-02-23 09:30 - 12:30 | Virtual
The goal of this interactive webinar is to identify the changes that have occurred in the NJ Medical Marijuana Program. The history of marijuana legalization and major events that have shaped this history are discussed. Known scientific research on the benefits of medical marijuana and the risks associated with marijuana usage are covered, as well as the continued barriers to better scientific research on this topic. Interactive exercises are incorporated in order to have participants analyze child custody issues for clients who are on the NJ medical marijuana program. Other exercises include the participants discussing how treatment is impacted by medical marijuana and participants will analyze under what conditions there would be a “duty to report” a coworker on medical marijuana.

Instructor:
Glenn Duncan, LPC, LCADC, CCS, ACS

Location:
Live Interactive Online Webinar

For registration, click here.

Rutgers Peer Mentoring Network for Early Career Professionals - Topic: Project Management
2024-02-21 16:00 - 18:00 | Rutgers Club, Livingston Campus
For those who are in New Brunswick and are relatively new to Rutgers, we welcome you to join our Peer Mentoring Network, which was created for early career professionals by early career professionals! We have some events this semester at the Rutgers Club and would love to have you. Feel free to forward along to anyone who might be interested!

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Linda Oshin (linda.oshin@rutgers.edu).

Rutgers Psychiatry Grand Rounds with Morgan James, Ph. D. - "The Orexin System as a Promising New Target for Treating Substance Use"
2024-02-13 11:00 - 12:00
The Rutgers Department of Psychiatry is pleased to invite you to join us for our Grand Rounds session.

Meeting URL:
https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/93346312802?pwd=[REDACTED]

Meeting ID:
933 4631 2802

Password:
[REDACTED]

Training in Addiction Research Program (TARP) Hybrid Presentation with Dr. Yavin Shaham
2024-02-12 13:00 - 14:00 | Deans Conference Room, 675 Hoes Lane West, Piscataway, New Jersey, 08854
Date:: Monday, February 12, 2024
Time: 1:00 p.m.
In-person Location: Deans Conference Room, Research Tower, 675 Hoes Ln W, Piscataway, NJ 08854
Join Zoom: https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/94500048473?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 945 0004 8473
Password: [REDACTED]
These events are for all TARP and RARC faculty and trainees, as well as collaborators and friends, so feel free to pass along the invitation to others.

Emerging Addiction Science Seminar - Investigating the Current Ketamine Landscape in the United States
2024-02-08 12:30 - 13:30 | Smithers Hall, Room 200, 607 Allison Rd, Piscataway, NJ, 08854
Dr. Palamar is an Associate Professor of Population Health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and Deputy Director of the National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS). Dr. Palamar focuses on the epidemiology of use of new psychoactive substances and party drugs both in the general population and in high-risk scenes. This important work helps inform prevention and harm reduction efforts.
For more information, click here.

165th Meeting of the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
2024-02-08 12:00 - 16:30 | Virtual
The meeting is scheduled for Thursday, February 8, 2024, beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET. It will be viewable online at https://videocast.nih.gov/watch=53825.
Please note – if you would like to make a statement to the council, please contact Dr. R.V. Srinivas at rv.srinivas@nih.gov.
A full agenda is available at https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/165th-meeting-national-advisory-council-alcohol-abuse-and-alcoholism-thursday-february-8-2024.

CCNP Webinar with Dr. Peter Manza (NIAAA) - "Dopamine kinetics and brain function: insights from simultaneous PET-fMRI"
2024-02-07 10:00 - 11:00 | Virtual
The addictiveness of stimulant drugs such as methylphenidate (MP) depends crucially on how fast they raise dopamine in the brain. Yet the brain circuits underlying the rate dependency to drug reward have not been resolved. We used simultaneous PET-fMRI to link dynamic changes in brain dopamine signaling, functional brain activity/connectivity, and the self-reported experience of ‘high’ in 20 healthy adults receiving MP at different speeds: slow (oral 60mg) and fast (intravenous-IV 0.25mg/kg) doses in a double-blind, counterbalanced, placebo-controlled study. We estimated speed of striatal dopamine increases to oral and IV MP and then tested where brain activity/connectivity was associated with slow and fast dopamine kinetics. The two administrations produced dramatically different effects on brain functional activation and connectivity despite a comparable overall magnitude of dopamine increases. These data demonstrate how fast dopamine increases generate unique effects on brain function that have relevance for the addictive potential of drugs.
Presenter: Peter Manza
National Institute oN Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
National Institute of Health
Location/Logistics

Wednesday, February 7, 10-11am EST
Zoom link: https://princeton.zoom.us/j/6397147065

Abstracts for previous talks are posted on the CCNP website: ccnp.princeton.edu. A list of upcoming seminars, job announcements, and other info about CCNP are available there as well.

Rutgers Psychiatry Grand Rounds with Dr. Nina Cooperman - "Mindfulness Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) for Prevention and Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder and Chronic Pain"
2024-02-06 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual

BHI/NJMS-Pharm/Phys/Neuro Faculty Candidate Hybrid Seminar with Dr. Xiaobing Zhang - “Central control of feeding motivation for food intake”
2024-02-05 12:30 - 13:00 | Hybrid Event
Join Zoom Meeting: https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/96969157125?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 969 6915 7125
Password: [REDACTED]
One tap mobile
+13126266799,,96969157125# US (Chicago)
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BHI Strategic Planning Virtual Townhall Invitations- Trainees Only
2024-02-05 08:00 - 17:00
The Rutgers Brain Health Institute (BHI) is embarking on a planning and priority setting process to chart a course that will guide the Institute’s growth and success for years to come. We value the perspectives and insights of our faculty, staff, post docs, students, residents, and fellows. Your input will be crucial in helping us refine BHI priorities for the next five years.
BHI invites all trainees (undergrads, grads, postdocs ….) interested in neuroscience and brain health to help develop its next strategic plan. Please join us at the virtual townhall meeting to provide ideas about how you would like BHI to support your research, clinical and academic endeavors.

Wednesday, February 14th at 4 PM: Zoom Link Trainee Townhall

(https://rutgers.zoom.us/j/96684003866?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 966 8400 3866; Passcode- 021424
Kindly RSVP by Clicking Here to let us know if you will be able to attend the virtual townhall. Thank You!!

Addiction Policy Forum Webinar: Opioid Overdose Reduction Continuum of Care Approach - Strategies to Reduce Overdose Fatalities
2024-02-02 15:00 - 16:30 | Virtual
Please join for a webinar on February 2, 2024, at 3 p.m. ET on strategies to reduce overdose fatalities from the Opioid-Overdose Reduction Continuum of Care Approach (ORCCA).
Developed through the HEALing Communities Study, the ORCCA framework can help communities implement system- and practice-level changes to reduce opioid overdose deaths. The HEALing Communities Study, a multi-site research study, tested the impact of an integrated set of evidence-based practices across healthcare, behavioral health, justice, and other community-based settings. HEALing Communities is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative®.
Speakers will provide an overview of the 19 essential evidence-based interventions in ORCCA designed to reduce opioid overdose deaths and highlight how communities in Ohio, Massachusetts, Kentucky and New York implemented ORCCA. The science and evidence behind the framework were published in the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence and outlined 19 essential evidence-based interventions to reduce opioid overdose deaths.
This webinar is sponsored by HEAL Connections, an initiative funded by the NIH HEAL Initiative.
For more information and registration, click here.

History of Science Workshop - Making Habits/Breaking Habits: Keywords in the History and Politics of Addiction
2024-02-02 09:00 - 2024-02-03 17:00
Learn more, click here.
As OxyContin was hitting the market in the mid 1990s, its marketers seized on the recently coined concept pseudoaddiction to drive home a bold claim: that patients in legitimate pain who showed signs of addiction were only behaving that way because doctors were overly stingy with prescriptions. Pseudoaddiction was an iatrogenically-produced behavior, mimicking addiction – a behavioral byproduct of a callous “war on drugs” mentality in medicine. It was a term that emerged from medical, social, political, and economic agendas, championed by pain patient advocates and opioid manufacturers, and eventually criticized by reformers aghast at the marketing-driven opioid crisis that ensued. It was, in short, a keyword, powerful and contested, whose history must be unpacked to understand the opioid crisis.
Like pseudoaddiction, nearly all the terms we use to identify, understand, and grapple with addiction and other habits are freighted with multiple registers of meaning, deployed for medical, social, political, and economic purposes, and developed to perform important cultural and policy work. This workshop brings together scholars from history, anthropology, politics, medicine, health policy to examine the history and politics of such consequential keywords and phrases in the making and breaking of habits. The gathering is a first step toward an edited volume – a critical analysis of consequential keywords and concepts in the vocabulary of addiction and habit.
The discussion will focus on a limited number of terms – with papers on “junkie,” “drunkard,” “teen users,” “habitue’,” “prohibition,” “recovery,” “dependence,” “rebirth,” “compulsion,” “stigma,” “harm reduction,” and “narco.” The short essays aim to draw attention (through historical as well as social and cultural analysis) to the significance of these terms in the experiences, representations, and governing of habits and their making and breaking. The intersections of race, gender, identity, and how these factors shape ideas about habit and policy responses to bad and good habits, will be one among several points of focus.
Themes in the making and breaking of habit include:

How the evolving historical lexicon sheds light on changing approaches to the origins, creation, and management of habits;
Analysis of the social, moral, economic, and political conditions that led keywords flourish in certain moments and contexts;
Discussion of the processes through which problem habits are designated and defined;
Which habits come to be categorized as harmful, beneficial, necessary, discouraged but allowed, etc., and why;
The significance of changes to the lexicon of liberating people from unwanted habits;
How practices, techniques, and approaches to “break habits” have been institutionalized and politicized, ranging from self-help regimens, religious interventions, or new regimens to replace old ones, such as methadone and psychedelic therapy.

While drug addictions – their making over time, their breaking – will be our central focus, we encourage discussion other habits such as gambling, food, social media, and other such behaviors. Finally, the workshop’s focus on twelve terms is merely a start toward building a more comprehensive volume of keywords in the history and politics of making and breaking habits. While many essays focus on the North American lexicon, this national focus is placed in context by papers that examine important global sites where the lexicon on addiction has been forged and contested.

GSAPP Webinar - Treating High-Functioning Problem Drinkers in Office-Based Psychotherapy Practice: A Clinician’s Toolbox of Moderation, Harm Reduction, and Abstinence Strategies
2024-02-02 09:00 - 12:30 | Virtual
Participants attending this skills-training workshop will come away with an enhanced understanding of the spectrum of alcohol use disorders that vary along multiple dimensions, how to meet the special needs of high-functioning clients who want an alternative to traditional abstinence-only treatment programs, and how to utilize a toolbox of evidence-based alcohol moderation, harm reduction, and abstinence strategies they can apply immediately in office-based clinical practice. The use of pharmacological adjuncts to enhance the efficacy of behavioral interventions will also be discussed.
The integrative client-centered approach described in this workshop advocates a harm reduction perspective that supports incremental change and individualized treatment goals including less risky drinking, moderate drinking, and abstinence—and it views any steps taken to reduce the risks and harm associated with substance use are steps in the right direction, whether or not abstinence is the immediate or ultimate goal. This approach is intuitively appealing and readily adapted for use by psychotherapists from all backgrounds and specialties because it is fundamentally a psychotherapeutic approach founded on the principles and practices of client-centered psychotherapy, including meeting patients “where they are” and working collaboratively with them to empower positive change rather than demand compliance with pre-determined goals. It is also intuitively appealing to high-functioning individuals who are able to maintain their daily responsibilities despite having clinically significant problems with alcohol and/or other drugs and do not want or need a traditional “one size fits all” addiction treatment program that pressures them to accept the identity of “addict” or “alcoholic” and embrace lifelong abstinence as the only legitimate goal.
Participants of this workshop will learn how to help clients take a closer look at their alcohol use, set realistic goals, change their drinking patterns, and acquire a better understanding of the role and meaning of alcohol use in their lives. Lecture material will be brought to life with numerous case examples from the presenter’s practice. Most of the material presented in this workshop is described in the presenter’s most recent book: Washton A.M. and Zweben J.E. (2022) “Treating Alcohol and Drug Problems in Psychotherapy Practice: Doing What Works.” (Guilford Publications).
Instructor: Arnold Washton, PhD

GSAPP Webinar: Treating High-Functioning Problem Drinkers in Office-Based Psychotherapy Practice: A Clinician’s Toolbox of Moderation, Harm Reduction, and Abstinence Strategies
2024-02-02 09:00 - 12:30 | Virtual
Participants attending this skills-training workshop will come away with an enhanced understanding of the spectrum of alcohol use disorders that vary along multiple dimensions, how to meet the special needs of high-functioning clients who want an alternative to traditional abstinence-only treatment programs, and how to utilize a toolbox of evidence-based alcohol moderation, harm reduction, and abstinence strategies they can apply immediately in office-based clinical practice. The use of pharmacological adjuncts to enhance the efficacy of behavioral interventions will also be discussed.
The integrative client-centered approach described in this workshop advocates a harm reduction perspective that supports incremental change and individualized treatment goals including less risky drinking, moderate drinking, and abstinence—and it views any steps taken to reduce the risks and harm associated with substance use are steps in the right direction, whether or not abstinence is the immediate or ultimate goal. This approach is intuitively appealing and readily adapted for use by psychotherapists from all backgrounds and specialties because it is fundamentally a psychotherapeutic approach founded on the principles and practices of client-centered psychotherapy, including meeting patients “where they are” and working collaboratively with them to empower positive change rather than demand compliance with pre-determined goals. It is also intuitively appealing to high-functioning individuals who are able to maintain their daily responsibilities despite having clinically significant problems with alcohol and/or other drugs and do not want or need a traditional “one size fits all” addiction treatment program that pressures them to accept the identity of “addict” or “alcoholic” and embrace lifelong abstinence as the only legitimate goal.
Participants of this workshop will learn how to help clients take a closer look at their alcohol use, set realistic goals, change their drinking patterns, and acquire a better understanding the role and meaning of alcohol use in their lives. Lecture material will be brought to life with numerous case examples from the presenter’s practice. Most of the material presented in this workshop is described in the presenter’s most recent book: Washton A.M. and Zweben J.E. (2022) “Treating Alcohol and Drug Problems in Psychotherapy Practice: Doing What Works.” (Guilford Publications).
For more information, click here.

New Jersey State Policy Lab Panel - Bridging the Gap Between Researchers and Government Agencies
2024-02-01 09:00 - 11:00 | Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, 33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, 08901
Local governments of all sizes are facing increasing threats to their fiscal and economic health, community well-being, and environmental resources. These agencies often will work with researchers to determine how best to address these challenges.

On February 1st, the New Jersey State Policy Lab will be hosting a new panel, “Bridging the Gap Between Researchers and Government Agencies,” which will be presented by Elizabeth Bell and Aaron Deslatte, Ph.D. Elizabeth Bell is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs and Aaron Deslatte, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the Indiana University O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Each will discuss their experiences handling researcher-practitioner partnerships with federal, state, and local agencies and provide recommendations for better tailoring research incentives in universities with research needs in communities.

The panel will be held at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy in Room 261 from 9:30am-11:30am. A continental breakfast will be offered at 9:00am.
We encourage you to register for our event through the link here.

NeC-ROTAC Webinar - Stigma, Self-Reliance, and Substance Use in Rural Communities
2024-01-31 13:00 - 15:00 | Virtual
One of the most significant challenges to individuals in treatment in rural communities is the stigma attached to being identified as someone who uses substances. The values of self-reliance and independence, while being a source of strength during crisis, can negatively influence help-seeking behaviors. This webinar will discuss how the stigma related to being identified as a substance user and the values of self-reliance converge to present a unique barrier to care for individuals in rural areas.
Presenter: Dr. Delores Blackwell, LCSW, is a multijurisdictional licensed clinical social worker. She has held numerous administrative and clinical positions within both the addictions and mental health disciplines. She is an adjunct professor at both Touro College and Hunter College Silberman Schools of Social Work. In conjunction with her numerous roles, she also conducts and develops trainings for mental health and addictions professionals in both direct practice and leadership positions. She is currently a Research Project Manager at the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University Medical Center, where she works with the Opioid Response Network and Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Center within the Northeast and Caribbean (HHS Region 2).
Registration: click here.

Rutgers SSW Alumni Conversations: What is New in Addiction Treatment
2024-01-31 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
Find out what’s new in treatment for addictions in our first alumni conversation of the year on January 31st at 12pm. Frank L. Greenagel, II, RC’01, SSW’06, EJB’15 will host this talk. This free session organized by the Rutgers School of Social Work Alumni Council will discuss social isolation, video game addiction, sports betting, the push for psychedelics, peer work, opiate policies that are working, and marijuana in New Jersey. Register today to secure your spot.

NeC-ROTAC Webinar - Overdose Safety Planning in Rural Communities
2024-01-30 13:00 - 15:00 | Virtual
A significant challenge facing rural community members is how to work with those who are struggling with opioid use and other substance use while effectively intervening to reduce the risks associated with overdose. Safety planning is an important aspect of overdose prevention. In keeping with harm reduction principles, this webinar will explore best practices for overdose prevention so that community members feel more empowered to conduct safety planning with those individuals at risk.
Presenter: Dr. Delores Blackwell, LCSW, is a multijurisdictional licensed clinical social worker. She has held numerous administrative and clinical positions within both the addictions and mental health disciplines. She is an adjunct professor at both Touro College and Hunter College Silberman Schools of Social Work. In conjunction with her numerous roles, she also conducts and develops trainings for mental health and addictions professionals in both direct practice and leadership positions. She is currently a Research Project Manager at the New York State Psychiatric Institute at Columbia University Medical Center, where she works with the Opioid Response Network and Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Center within the Northeast and Caribbean (HHS Region 2).
Registration: click here.

Rutgers Psychiatry Grand Rounds with Danielle Dick, Ph.D. "Using Genetics to Prevent Addiction: Science Fiction or Science Fact?"
2024-01-30 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual

NASEM Health Workshop- Harm Reduction Services for People Who Use Drugs: Exploring Data Collection, Evidence Gaps, and Research Needs
2024-01-30 10:00 - 2024-01-31 17:00 | Virtual
Recognizing the public health emergency posed by opioid overdoses, comprehensive efforts have been taken to approach drug policy in ways that reduce harm for people who use drugs (PWUD). The National Academies will host a 2-day virtual public workshop to explore data collection efforts, evidence gaps, and research needs on harm reduction services for PWUD.
The workshop will gather data experts, program implementers, evaluators, individuals with lived/living experience, and other key interested parties to consider existing and proposed harm reduction strategies and services that aim to prevent overdose and infectious disease transmission; enhance the health, safety, and wellbeing of PWUD; and offer low-threshold options for accessing substance use disorder treatment. Such strategies and services include syringe services programs; providing fentanyl and xylazine test strips; distributing naloxone and other reversal medications; and facilitating connections to social services for PWUD in need of medical services, stable housing, food-assistance, or employment.
Invited presentations and discussions will be designed to:

Explore the current state of knowledge and evidence gaps regarding delivering harm reduction services for PWUD in communities, including evidence on best practices for engaging PWUD who are not currently accessing treatment or harm reduction services, as well as inclusive service delivery practices
Examine data collection coverage and gaps at the local, state, and federal levels regarding the current state of harm reduction practices in the U.S., including survey research and program and grant evaluations
Discuss evidence on barriers to the implementation of harm reduction services and programs at the local, state and federal levels, and the impact of regulatory barriers relative to other factors affecting harm reduction services
Explore future data collection needs and key opportunities for federally-sponsored harm reduction research

For more information and registration, click here.

Knock Out Opioid Use Day Learning Series - The Opioid Crisis: An Overview featuring Dr. Lewis Nelson
2024-01-25 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual
Register for a Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day Learning Series Webinar
“The Opioid Crisis: An Overview”​​
REGISTER NOW
An expert panel will discuss the webinar topic & answer questions – Learning opportunities in safe prescribing for physicians, dentists, nurses and any other medical practitioners authorized to prescribe opioid-based painkillers and inform all prescribers on the local laws that pertain to the prescribing of opioids.
PANELISTS

Lewis S. Nelson, MD, MBA

Lewis S. Nelson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine and Chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, in Newark, NJ. He is board certified in emergency medicine, medical toxicology, and addiction medicine. Dr. Nelson serves as a long-standing consultant to the CDC, DHS, and FDA and works closely with several professional organizations addressing the medical and social consequences of substance use. His areas of interest include non-opioid pain relief strategies, opioid overdose and management, addiction and withdrawal management, and health policy focused on issues related to medication safety and substance use.

Captain Jason Piotrowski

New Jersey State Police Captain Jason Piotrowski embarked on his law enforcement career in 1995, starting as a local police officer before joining the New Jersey State Police in 2001. Commencing as a general duty road trooper, he was later selected as an inaugural member of the state fusion center in 2006. From 2014 to 2023, Jason played a pivotal role in the development and leadership of the New Jersey Drug Monitoring Initiative, focusing on data collection, analysis, intelligence production, and comprehensive training and outreach efforts. Currently, he serves as the Executive Officer in the Forensic and Technical Services Section. In addition to his law enforcement duties, Captain Piotrowski is a Bloomberg American Health Initiative Fellow and an MPH Candidate at Johns Hopkins University.
