SMART Policy Podcast
Podcast by the UT SMART Initiative. Host Jeremy Kourvelas speaks with experts from across the recovery ecosystem - representing healthcare, prevention, law enforcement and more - about local, state and federal drug policy to find out what is and isn't working to make this fight against addiction a little easier.
SMART Policy Podcast
Latest Episodes
Kratom: What It Is and Why Was It Banned in Tennessee?
Arguably the most significant drug policy shift in Tennessee in 2026 was Matthew Davenport’s Law, the complete and total ban on kratom products, which went into effect on July 1st. The law is named after a Chattanooga individual who tragically ...
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Controlled, Unpleasant, Unpatented, and Potentially Life-Saving: the Ibogaine Question
On April 18th, 2026, President Trump signed Executive Order 14401, which directs federal agencies to accelerate research into psychedelic medications for the treatment of serious mental illness, including substance use disorder. One of the most...
12 Hard Lessons: Richard J. Baum on America's Opioid Crisis
The arc of the opioid crisis is, by now, familiar to most people. Over-prescribing of legal opioids in the late nineties caused escalating numbers of people to develop use disorders. In the 2000s, new prescribing guidelines and controlled subst...
Why a New Synthetic Opioid is Outsmarting Drug Tests
There’s been growing attention to a new chemical in the illicit drug supply: N-Propionitrile Chlorphine, also known as cychlorphine. On top of being more potent than fentanyl, it’s also extremely hard to detect on toxicology tests. Curren...
What the Brain Disease Model of Addiction Gets Right — and What It Misses
Something really has changed over the past twenty years, especially in the last ten. Our culture has increasingly come to accept the idea that addiction is a chronic, treatable disease, not a moral failure. Secretary RFK Jr. of the Dept. of Health...
