UK welcomes 90 scholars from 50 nations for seminar on addiction; 3 events open to public Thur. and Fri. mornings

Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, will give the
keynote plenary address at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.

Ninety Fulbright scholars from about 50 countries are gather at the University of Kentucky today to attend the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Enrichment Seminar: Combating Addiction, which runs through Saturday. Several events will be open to the public.

The seminar is hosted by UK's International Center in cooperation with the Institute of International Education and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

It will address various aspects of addiction, including interdisciplinary research, education, clinical and community outreach practices relating to substance use disorders and recovery.

Beth Barnes, professor in the College of Communication and Information and co-organizer of this event, said it will provide opportunities to examine the crisis of addiction “through the lenses of medicine, social constructs, policy, government and the legal system and NGO interventions."

The public events are:

• 8:30 a.m., March 21 at the Gatton Student Center Worsham Cinema: Keynote plenary address by Beth Macy, journalist and bestselling author, who addressed America’s 20-plus year struggle with opioid addiction in her latest book, "Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America." Macy will focus on  the trajectory of opioid addiction in the southeastern U.S. Following the keynote, attendees will be given the opportunity to purchase the book and meet Macy.  ​
• 11 a.m.-noon March 21 in Worsham Cinema: Screening of the "The Narcotic Farm," an  award-winning documentary about the U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility on Leestown Road in Lexington, where almost every arrested addict between 1935 and 1975 was sent for a cure. 
• 9-10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 22 in the Worsham Cinema: Plenary session by John C. Tilley, secretary of the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, who will be speaking on “Public Policy, State and Federal Intervention Approaches to Combating Addiction.” 

Also, on March 28, the UK Office of Institutional Diversity will host a related talk on the issue of opioid addiction in America by Sam Quinones, journalist and author of Dreamland. This event is also open to the public and will begin at 10 a.m. in the Gatton College of Business and Economics.