Sen. Portman, NIDA Director at UC Nov. 27 to Discuss Opioid Crisis

CINCINNATI— U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Nora Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), will be available to news media at 11:15 a.m., Monday, Nov. 27 to offer perspectives and answer questions on the opioid crisis. Both will be in Cincinnati that day meeting with leadership, physicians and researchers at the University of Cincinnati and UC Health.

The event will be held at the UC Health Addiction Sciences offices, 3131 Harvey Ave. News media should drive into the service road along the south side of the Addiction Sciences offices and will be directed to nearby parking. News media are encouraged to arrive by 11 a.m.

Volkow also will deliver the keynote address at a public symposium beginning at 1 p.m., Monday, Nov. 27. "Tackling the Ohio Opioid Crisis: Harnessing the Power of Science to Break the Cycle,” will be held in Kresge Auditorium in the Medical Sciences Building at the UC College of Medicine. The event is presented by UC and UC Health and is free and open to the public.

Volkow’s keynote, "Medication-Assisted Therapies: Tackling the Opioid-Overdose Epidemic,” will begin at 1:30 p.m. As director of NIDA since 2003, Volkow’s work has been instrumental in demonstrating that drug addiction is a disease of the human brain. A research psychiatrist and scientist, Volkow pioneered the use of brain imaging to investigate the toxic effects and addictive properties of abusable drugs.

Additional presentations at the symposium will be provided by Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus; several UC College of Medicine faculty and UC Health clinicians; Tracy Plouck, director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services; and Lisa Roberts, RN, coordinator of the Drug Free Communities Program, Portsmouth City Health Department.