Everyone who’s gone to elementary school in the last fifty years has had some sort of “Just Say No” sessions and activities; we’re all familiar with this type of informational prevention.  But there is much more to the picture. 

My guest this month is Stephanie Strutner, CEO of the Prevention Alliance of Tennessee, an advocacy organization that represents dozens of grassroots coalitions across the state fighting substance use disorders of all kinds.  Over the last few years, she has rapidly become one of the most important voices for primary prevention in all of Tennessee.

Produced and edited by Jeremy Kourvelas.  Original music by Blind House.

What does "primary" prevention for SUD look like?

The data is clear: 18-25 is a critical time for substance use and mental health interventions. This is why programs implemented on college campuses have significant impacts.

But that isn’t to say these interventions are easy to launch.

My guests this month are Dr. Jessi Gold, Chief Wellness Officer for UT System and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UT Health Science Center, and Megan McKnight, Director of the Center for Wellbeing at UT Chattanooga. In this conversation, we talk about some of the successes they have had in launching harm reduction education and prevention programs on college campuses, overcoming concerns over legal liability, debunking myths, addressing stigma, and solving the most important problem of all: logistics, such as who pays for what. Finally, we discuss what next steps look like. After all, getting naloxone on college campuses and saving lives is only step one.

Hosted and produced by Jeremy Kourvelas. Original music by Blind House.

Learn more:
Article on Dr. Jessi Gold plans to “Change the Culture” around mental health: https://news.uthsc.edu/inaugural-chief-wellness-officer-aims-to-change-the-culture-around-mental-health/ 
Megan McKnight honored by the White House for her overdose prevention efforts: https://blog.utc.edu/news/2024/10/utcs-megan-mcknight-honored-by-white-house-for-leadership-in-opioid-overdose-prevention/ 
The ONEbox emergency opioid overdose reversal kit: https://www.wvdii.org/onebox 
SMART: smart.tennessee.edu 

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM

Getting Naloxone on College Campuses and Other Interventions

From 2001-2011, as the prescription opioid crisis spiraled out of control, Kim Harmon, then with Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, went undercover to bust pill mills, among other investigations into medical fraud.  

Shortly after she progressed up into a new role, however, her daughter Taylor’s own actual struggles with substance use disorder began to spiral out of control, and suddenly this law enforcement officer, once tasked with imitating people with addiction in order to stop the flow of illicit pills, now had to figure out how she could help her own daughter find recovery. And yet despite all her experience and resources, it was not an easy road.

Taylor’s struggles might sound familiar to many Tennesseans. Despite growing up in a peaceful childhood, a personal tragedy caused a tendency to over-drink into a full blown disorder, closely followed by a problem with benzos, opioids and other so-called hard drugs. Fortunately, however, her story of sobriety should be equally recognizable: she found a strong community of peers in recovery and they helped Taylor find her own path. 

This is a fascinating, far-reaching conversation that touches on many topics. If I had to boil it down, though, I might say the big takeaway is that anybody and everybody is susceptible to addiction, and the most important thing we can do from a policy perspective is to make sure people with substance use disorder have real access to resources that make a difference. 

Hosted and produced by Jeremy Kourvelas. Original music by Blind House.

Learn more:
SMART: smart.tennessee.edu 

LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM

From Busting Pill Mills to Battling at Home: An Officer's Daughter Finds Recovery

Late last year, Maury County Commission approved the spending of $920,770 in opioid settlement funding, abating the opioid crisis in their community from multiple angles.

But it’s more than just the broad and comprehensive approach that caught our eye at SMART. The formal and transparent procedures of the Maury County Opioid Abatement Committee have made it so that any local resident can follow along and see exactly how these dollars are being allocated.  

On the show this month is Doug Lukonen, the Maury County Finance Director and Chair of the county’s Opioid Abatement Committee, and Brandon Faun, Financial Administrative Assistant, who was instrumental in creating the documents and procedures of the committee’s abatement community grant process. 

It’s clear that the Finance Office provided some crucial insight, as the guiding principle for the committee has been that though these funds last 18 years, the amounts change significantly over time - and as such, so should the county’s plans. 

This was an excellent conversation with a lot of actionable takeaways for county officials. Most of all, the reminder that the allocation deadline for 2023 funding is only one month away. 

Learn more:
Maury County Opioid Abatement Committee: https://www.maurycounty-tn.gov/645/Maury-County-Opioid-Abatement-Committee 
TN Opioid Abatement Council County Funding: https://www.tn.gov/oac/county.html 
SMART: smart.tennessee.edu 

LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM

Maury County's Fiscally Conservative Approach Pays Off

Overdose Fatality Review, or OFR, is a fairly new and yet already proven strategy for identifying gaps in recovery ecosystems. In other words, you bring together people from healthcare, law enforcement, criminal justice, harm reduction services and more to jointly examine cases of fatal overdoses and find out how these people fell through the cracks.

Lauren Savitskas works for the Institute for Intergovernmental Research on behalf of the Bureau of Justice Assistance to provide technical assistance for the implementation of OFR teams across the country. Trevor Henderson, SMART’s Middle Tennessee Substance Use Response Consultant, joins Lauren as well as Sharena Cathey of the Knox County Health Department and Denise Martin of the Rutherford County Medical Examiner’s Office to provide perspective on how OFR teams have been implemented in Tennessee, showcasing how varied and dynamic this strategy can be.  

In this conversation, we explore why this strategy breaks down data silos, identifies actionable solutions, and leads to long term relationships, including opportunities for further innovation.

Learn more:
OFR Toolkits: www.ofrtools.org
OFR Fact Sheet (LAPPA): https://legislativeanalysis.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/OFR-Fact-Sheet-FINAL-1.pdf 
Model OFR Legislation (LAPPA): https://legislativeanalysis.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/LAPPA-Model-Overdose-Fatality-Review-Teams-Act.pdf 
SMART: www.smart.tennessee.edu 

LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM

Finding Opportunities to Save Lives With Overdose Fatality Review Teams

Despite significant changes at the federal and state level, the rate of opioid prescriptions remains startlingly high. The most recent data shows that Tennessee is still hovering around 60 prescriptions for every 100 people in the state.  And again, that’s prescriptions, not pills.  As such, many patients are still facing the same on-ramp to opioid medications that got stuck in the opioid crisis in the first place. 

My guests this month are Brand Newland and Michael Doty of Goldfinch Health, Melissa Armstead of Southern Tennessee Health System, and Kathy Federico of Lifepoint Health. In 2024, Goldfinch received a grant to implement a primary prevention program focused on non-opioid pain treatment in surgical settings, and they partnered with a hospital in Lawrenceburg, TN, located in the rural, south central portion of our state.

The early success of the Billion Pill Pledge in Lawrenceburg genuinely surprised me. I worked in rural emergency departments from 2014-2018, during the rise of fentanyl, and so I know first hand how significant it is to so dramatically reduce visits to the ED for pain control. 

In this conversation, we talk about the program, how it works, how it rolled out in Lawrenceburg, and what the future of non-opioid pain treatment may look like, at both the clinical, the scientific, and the policy levels. 

Learn more:
Goldfinch Health - The Billion Pill Pledge: https://www.goldfinchhealth.com/billion-pill-pledge/ 
Southern Tennessee Regional Health System, Lawrenceburg: https://www.southerntnlawrenceburg.com/ 
Lifepoint Health: https://www.lifepointhealth.net/ 
SMART: www.smart.tennessee.edu/

LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM

Changing Healthcare Culture: The Billion Pill Pledge and Non-Opioid Pain Treatment

The group of people that are dying of overdoses at the highest rate, by far, are men in their 30s-50s. This group is also statistically less likely than others to ask for help. This is one of the biggest reasons why it can be difficult to implement effective prevention strategies targeting working age men. 

My guest this month is Dr. Monty Burks, Deputy Director of the Tennessee Governor’s Faith-Based and Community Initiative, which seeks to empower community resources to tackle the biggest challenges of our time, including overdose, addiction, and recidivism. Monty is also a certified peer recovery specialist with years of experience engaging people with substance use disorder and meeting them where they are, so I could think of no better person with which I wanted to discuss one of the main consequences of these deaths: the impact on their families. 

After all, many of these men were fathers, as are many of those men still in the throes of active addiction. What can we do to reach this surprisingly vulnerable population and help them become the best versions of themselves? 

In this conversation, we talk about the ways that we the people of Tennessee can step up to help, from foster care to peer recovery to even just listening to someone who needs to be heard.

Learn more:
Governor’s Faith-Based and Community Initiative: https://governorsinitiative.org/
SMART: http://www.smart.tennessee.edu/

LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM


Fathers Lost in the Overdose Crisis: Prevention, Mentorship, & Rebuilding Families

Small business owners, industry leaders, law enforcement officers, teachers, and even other elected offices like city councilperson - these are some of the most common professions that people have before becoming a county mayor in Tennessee.  But it may surprise you that a fair number of our county executives were EMTs, paramedics, or first responders before seeking public office. 

On the one hand, a path like this makes a lot of sense – if one is drawn to the kind of leadership that responding to literal fires, injuries and disasters requires, surely that mindset could be put to good use in a mayor’s or county executive’s office. On top of that, as far as the opioid crisis is concerned, we at SMART have found that few people are more aware of the complexities of the overdose crisis than EMTs and paramedics, and that degree of expertise goes a long way towards making effective decisions on allocating the opioid settlements. 

My guests this month are Montgomery County Mayor Wes Golden and Jefferson County Mayor Mark Potts, two Tennessee leaders that have dedicated their careers to public safety and now hold elected office. In this conversation, we talk about how their past experiences prepared them for mayoral life, the benefits of a career in public safety, and why a career in public service is life-changing. 


Original music by Blind House. Hosted and produced with additional scoring by Jeremy Kourvelas.

Learn more:
Montgomery County’s Youth Engagement Coalition: https://montgomerytn.gov/juvenile/youth-coalition 
Brighter Tennessee article on Jefferson County’s award winning opioid settlement allocation process: https://indd.adobe.com/view/9bd5aac3-0955-491b-995f-0c5f4101f319 
Portable Spectrometers Brief: https://smart.ips.tennessee.edu/drug-policy-analysis/portable-spectrometers 
SMART: www.smart.tennessee.edu

LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM

First on Scene, Still on Duty: How These EMTs-Turned-Mayors Tackle the Opioid Crisis

Cannabis, cannabinoids, and cannabimimetics like Delta-8 and THC-P and more are increasingly common across America, including in the state of Tennessee, where we have passed numerous regulations on the industry in recent years. And in states where cannabis has been fully legalized, some products containing Delta-9 THC, the psychoactive ingredient of what is defined in Tennessee state law as marijuana, the concentrations have grown to historically unprecedented levels, with some products boasting 90-95% potency. 

Despite the widespread availability of high-THC cannabis products, however, it seems the general conversation around the safety and efficacy of these substances remains grounded in a lot of misunderstandings. Not to mention a lack of awareness about the concerning side effects of these high-potency synthetically manipulated products, which are not at all like the cannabis of the ‘90s or earlier. 

My guest this month is Dr. Kristen Gilliland, Director of Outreach and Advocacy Programs and Assistant Professor of Research at the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery at Vanderbilt University. On top of an extensive career in the field, Dr. Gilliland tragically lost her son to a drug overdose in 2019, a couple of years after he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Now, Dr. Gilliland works to provide innovative, evidence-based, and compassionate prevention education to teens about the reality of the modern cannabis market, which has been significantly changed since it became a legal, corporatized, and multibillion dollar industry. 

Original music by Blind House. Hosted and produced with additional scoring by Jeremy Kourvelas.

Learn more:
Speaking Through Me: https://speakingthroughme.squarespace.com/home
Dr. Kristen Gilliland: https://speakingthroughme.squarespace.com/kristen 
SMART: www.smart.tennessee.edu

LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM

Speaking Through Me: Using Compassion and Science to Talk to Teens About  Cannabis, Social Media, and Brain Health

If you’ve ever worked in the field of recovery in East Tennessee, there’s a strong chance you’ve met Trent Coffey, executive director of the Schools Together Allowing No Drugs, or STAND, Coalition in Scott County, TN. 

And if are connected to Appalachia and use Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, there’s an equally strong chance you’ve encountered his cousin, Andi Marie Tillman, a comedian, actor and musician who is known for her wide array of relatable characters. 

As it happens, Andi Marie is a person in recovery, and knows first hand what it feels like to need help from the medical system in Tennessee - and how difficult it can be to get that help. 

In this special episode, we talk about Andi Marie’s recovery journey, Trent’s extensive career in drug prevention, the opioid crisis in rural Appalachia, how culture plays a role, opioid settlements, federal funding cuts, and as always, policies that might make this battle against addiction a little easier. We even dive into some Coffey family lore. 

We also filmed this episode, and will soon be releasing the video version on our soon-to-launch YouTube channel, so stay tuned for that release. 

Finally, we decided to include some content that we normally wouldn’t. Consider it behind-the-scenes or bloopers. These two are just too funny to not share that with you - and plus, it shows the real Appalachia you don’t typically see on TV. As always, any views and opinions expressed in this episode do not reflect those of UT. 


Original music by Blind House. Hosted and produced with additional scoring by Jeremy Kourvelas.

Learn more:
STAND Coalition: https://www.standcoalition.com/about
Andi Marie’s Instagram: @andimarietillman
Andi Marie’s YouTube: @andimarie7554
Scott County Opioid Abatement: https://scottcounty.com/opioid-settlement-funding/ 
SMART: www.smart.tennessee.edu

LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM

Family, Recovery, and the Real Appalachia: A Conversation with Andi Marie Tillman & Trent Coffey

When it comes to any large government program targeting health, social, and cultural issues, there are always concerns that the money won’t be spent well. The opioid settlements are no exception.  

So when a program involves multiple community partners, a transparent and collaborative decision-making process, and is based on the local data, the rate of success tends to be high.  

This is what makes Sumner County’s approach so remarkable. After finding out that Highpoint Health hospital alone received over 50% of all overdoses brought in by EMS, they hired a Substance Use & Recovery Navigator to join the emergency department and help connect overdose survivors with local resources and treatment. The program also includes funding to get people help at Volunteer Behavioral Health - located right across the street from the hospital - and a “Box of Hope” containing naloxone, an up-to-date local recovery resource guide, and other tools provided by the Sumner County Prevention Coalition.  And this is just a part of the county’s overall overdose response plan that they are funding with opioid settlement dollars. 

My guests this month are Justin Werlick, Substance Use & Recovery Navigator, Dr. Geoffrey Lifferth, Chief Medical Officer for Highpoint Health with Ascension Saint Thomas, Haylee Mcphearson-Bush, VP of Operations of the Middle/West regions for Volunteer Behavioral Health, Meagan Griffith, Director of the Sumner County Prevention Coalition, Charlotte Hollis of the Sumner County Health Department, and Dr. Dustin Owens, Grant Accountant for the Sumner County Budget Committee.  

In this episode we talk about how all of these vital partners were brought together, how concerns were addressed - including the fear of duplication or supplantation of existing services - and why they are working to make naloxone more available to the community than ever before. We also discuss the larger barriers that people needing recovery face, including not only the lack of connection between existing resources, but the gaps in healthcare coverage that keep people from getting the help they need. 

Original music by Blind House. Hosted and produced with additional scoring by Jeremy Kourvelas.

Learn more:
Highpoint Health Announcement: https://www.highpointhealthsystem.com/news/coalition-receives-grant-to-support-opioid-overdose-crisis-interventions
Sumner County Opioid Abatement Committee: https://sumnercountytn.gov/opioid-abatement/ 
Volunteer Behavioral Health: https://volunteerbehavioralhealth.org/ 
Sumner County Prevention Coalition: https://sumnercoalition.org/ 
SMART: www.smart.tennessee.edu

LISTEN HERE: https://open.spotify.com/show/5qbzONIr0hlWxiQsPwkXHM

What does "primary" prevention for SUD look like?

SMART Initiative

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