When a New York State Senator said, “It’s not a ghetto drug. It’s happening to doctor’s kids,” he was referring to opioids.  He was also describing two mindsets – one focused on criminality, the other on treating a disease.

And many perceive racial and ethnic implications in these two ways of thinking about the opioid epidemic.  The topic is explored in a 90-minute conversation hosted by WFYI’s Side Effects health reporting unit in partnership with the Indiana Minority Health Coalition.

Guests:  Jocelyn Bush, MD, specialist in anesthesiology and pain management; Brad Ray, PhD, mental health and criminal justice researcher, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis; Ronald Sullivan, director of Harvard’s Criminal Justice Institute; Joselyn Whitticker, president of the Grant County (Indiana) Minority Health Coalition

Moderator:  Michael Twyman, PhD, consultant and associate faculty member at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

Learn more about Side Effects Public Media

Learn more about the Indiana Minority Health Coalition