Calendar

Ending America's Ambivalence in the War on Drugs

Event Information

Dr. DiNitto's lecture is free and open to the public.  Free parking is available in the Fawcett Center parking lot.  All who attend the lecture are invited to the free reception that will take place outside the auditorium after the lecture.  Light hors d'oeuvres and non-alcoholic beverages will be served.  Two complimentary CEUs are available to licensed social workers and counselors who attend the event.  Two complimentary RCHs are also available for certified professionals in the addictions field.  Sign language interpreters will translate the lecture, responses, and audience questions througout the event.

Abstract

Americans are at best ambivalent about how to address drug problems and at worst hostile to people who have drug problems. Examples of this ambivalence abound in the way drug problems are singled out or treated in disability policy, public assistance policy, and federal student financial aid policy. Hostility is particularly apparent in the ways drug problems are treated in the criminal justice system. Even drug courts, a form of decriminalization, reflect America’s ambivalence about whether drug abuse or dependence should fall under the purview of criminal justice or social service systems. Until Americans resolve their ambivalence and define drug abuse and dependence as public health or social welfare problems, contradictory policies and programs will continue to leave us in the same “hurting stalemate” in attempts to resolve drug problems. This talk will address America’s ambivalence toward drug problems and discuss a multisystemic approach that includes treatment, health insurance, and harm reduction and considers controlled access to drugs, leading to a reconstruction of drug problems that should reduce the private and public harms caused by drug problems and the war on drugs.

Diana M. DiNitto

Cullen Trust Centennial Professor in Alcohol Studies and Education
University Distinguished Teaching Professor
The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work

Diana DiNitto is Cullen Trust Centennial Professor in Alcohol Studies and Education and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin where she teaches courses in social welfare policy, chemical dependency, research, and pedagogy. She is the author of Social Welfare: Politics and Public Policy and coauthor of Chemical Dependency: A Systems Approach and Social Work: Issues and Opportunities in a Challenging Profession. Her research has centered on alcohol and drug problems and violence against women. Dr. DiNitto received her bachelor’s degree in social welfare from Barry College and her master’s degree in social work and Ph.D. in government from Florida State University. She began her social work career working in a detox center, halfway house, and outpatient services for people with alcohol and drug problems at Apalachee Community Mental Services in north Florida. She was previously on the faculty at Florida State University and has been a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, and the University of Sydney in Australia.

Respondents

The tradition of the O'Leary Lecture is to invite experts to rebut or respond to the keynote lecture.  This year, the College of Social Work is pleased to announce that Professor Emeritus, Dr. Keith Kilty, of the College of Social Work and Chief Operating Officer, Lori Criss, MSW, LSW, of Amethyst Inc. will serve as respondents to the 2009 O'Leary Lecture.

History of the O'Leary Lecture

The Robert J. O’Leary Memorial Lecture Series was established in 1985 in the College of Social Work through an unrestricted gift from the estate of Robert J. O’Leary of Ashtabula County, Ohio.  In keeping with the interest at Ohio State University in research that is both scholarly and relevant to improving the lives of people, especially the most vulnerable among us, this evening’s lecture is focused on improving services to children and families in the child welfare system.

Mr. O’Leary, a 1931 graduate of The Ohio State University School of Social Administration, had a varied and rich career as a social worker and social administrator.  His career included leadership in the Ohio offices of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and in the Bureau
of the Budget, Washington, D.C.  He returned to Ohio after retiring from federal service and became Director of Social Services for the Ashtabula County Mental Health Clinic.  He died March 28, 1984.

The lecture series features noted American scholars who are asked to address various issues for the professional enrichment of social workers and other members of the social welfare community.  Previous lecturers are Dr. Robert H. Bremner, distinguished professor emeritus of history from The Ohio State University; Dr. Barbara Enrenreich, noted feminist, lecturer and author; Karl Dennis, Executive Director of Kaleidoscope and a nationally recognized expert on community-based care of children; Dr. Michael Sherraden, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, a national expert on welfare reform; Dr. Rosalie Kane, University of Minnesota, an international expert on health care for the aged; Dr. Alfred J. Kahn, Professor Emeritus, Special Research Scholar and Special Lecturer, Columbia University, School of Social Work; Dr. Frances Fox Piven, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology, Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York; Fernando Torres-Gil, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, UCLA School of Public Affairs; Dr. Richard P. Barth, Dean of the School of Social Work and Professor at the University of Maryland; and Dr. Sandra Danziger, Professor of Social Work and Research and Professor of Public Policy at the School of Social Work, University of Michigan.

Lauren T. Haas | Research Office | 614-247-7385