What Is Driving America's Fentanyl Crisis?

Join us Thursday, September 22, at 6:00 PM for Pioneer Institute's 2022 Hewitt Healthcare Lecture, What Is Driving America’s Fentanyl Crisis?

This year, we are pleased to be joined by President and CEO of Hudson Institute and Former Drug Czar and Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, John Walters. The 2022 Hewitt Lecture will be accompanied by in-person discussion with Pioneer’s wide community of supporters from the realms of bioscience, finance, management, healthcare, law, media, and more.

If you would like to be a part of this event, be sure to reserve your seat now, as it is first-come, first-served. We hope you’ll consider enhancing your support of Pioneer by sponsoring the Lecture or making a leadership gift toward the evening.

The fentanyl epidemic is one of the most pressing crises facing our state and our nation today. According to the DEA’s 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment, fentanyl seizures in Massachusetts were the highest in New England and among the highest in the nation.

We have watched in horror as fentanyl overdoses have skyrocketed in Massachusetts, rising from 8 per 100,000 residents in 2010 to an estimated 30.2 in 2020. In 2020 alone, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner found that fentanyl was present in 92 percent of the 1,937 opioid-related deaths. Join us to hear from substance abuse policy expert John Walters on the causes of the fentanyl crisis, insights on the current state of play, lessons we can draw from our nation’s history, and recommended solutions to the ongoing epidemic.

Named for Pioneer’s former Chairman, Charles “Colby” Hewitt, Jr., the annual Hewitt Lecture brings together the nation’s top healthcare and life sciences experts to discuss the most pressing issues facing our country’s health sector.