Many radio call-in shows are cringeworthy, but between Michael Krasny’s matchless skills as a host and the high quality of the calls from San Francisco Bay Area listeners, KQED Forum is a cut way above the norm. Following on Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death, Vitka Eisen, David Sheff and I talked with Michael about drug addiction, drug treatment and health care policy. I was most struck by the callers who movingly described their own past or current struggles with addiction and by those who told stories of frighteningly careless prescribing of opioids by health care professionals.

[Cross-posted at The Reality-Based Community]

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Keith Humphreys is a Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University and served as Senior Policy Advisor in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in the Obama Administration. @KeithNHumphreys