How do most doctors and adcom members feel about drug legalization?

[and 99 others]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I want to write about drug legalization as an avenue for mitigating the opioid epidemic in some parts of the US, but I am worried that this may rub some committee members the wrong way. Is this a good idea or are adcoms generally more conservative when it comes to ideas like this?

 

[Toutie]

What is the prompt?

 

[sadpremed121]

Too risky imo

 

[babykarat]

I want to write about drug legalization as an avenue for mitigating the opioid epidemic in some parts of the US, but I am worried that this may rub some committee members the wrong way. Is this a good idea or are adcoms generally more conservative when it comes to ideas like this?

I would not put anything that political in your application. Best to leave that for interviews if it comes up, and then you can shine by discussing the pros and cons of legalizing

 

[and 99 others]

What is the prompt?

To address a prominent health concern and innovative solutions to mitigate it.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

I mean, only do it if you are ready to get asked in detail about it at an interview. Writing about stuff like that makes you easy prey for the types of questions that interviewers will ask simply to see how you handle on the spot pressure.

 

[Goro]

I would not put anything that political in your application. Best to leave that for interviews if it comes up, and then you can shine by discussing the pros and cons of legalizing

I agree

 

[Goro]

To address a prominent health concern and innovative solutions to mitigate it.

This Is not something you should be commenting on unless you have a lot of experience with it. You don't want to come off as naive and starry-eyed.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

You dont have to go out many degrees of separation to find someone,.... possibly an interviewer, who has been directly affected by the opiod crisis. I would not present this thesis in your app.

 

[Goro]

You dont have to go out many degrees of separation to find someone,.... possibly an interviewer, who has been directly affected by the opiod crisis. I would not present this thesis in your app.

Angus, could you kindly send me a PM?

 

[beattheprocess]

I love drugs

 

[Dr. Faust]

I would not present this in your app as many physicians are actually conservative once you start talking to them. However, I think this is a wonderful topic and I will definitely be pushing this envelope as well when I am a physician.

 

[NickNaylor]

I think you would be hard-pressed to find that a majority of physicians would be in favor of across-the-board drug legalization. However, things like harm reduction are a "safer" position to take. With respect to the opioid crisis, for example, I don't think you would find many people that would oppose increased access to naloxone.

 

[TelemarketingEnigma]

I think you would be hard-pressed to find that a majority of physicians would be in favor of across-the-board drug legalization. However, things like harm reduction are a "safer" position to take. With respect to the opioid crisis, for example, I don't think you would find many people that would oppose increased access to naloxone.

you'd be surprised... While most physicians are pretty on board, a lot of the public still doesn't really understand naloxone, let alone a lot of other harm reduction measures. My school has a very prominent harm reduction program affiliated with it (we've been on state/national news for it recently) and yet there are still a lot of physicians (even in our faculty!) who don't "get it" or who have said actively disdainful things about various (very well proven) harm reduction methods. To be fair, we're in a more conservative state, but these are methods that even the Trump admin has decided to support...

That said, talking about harm reduction in an interview/essay here would probably be fine, as long as you can prove you understand the theory and practices behind it, especially since it could be a reason for "why this school"

Drug legalization would definitely be a lot iffier, and there's a lot of nuance you'd need to be prepared to talk about (for example, do you mean legalization or decriminalization? all drugs of any kind? just some? What other services would you need to provide alongside legalization?).

 

[piii]

To address a prominent health concern and innovative solutions to mitigate it.

It’s not really innovative if people are already doing it lol

 

[bonedoc5576]

Just my opinion, but if you are referring only to cannabis then I believe the topic is safe and the position you'd be advocating has ample justification

 

[Angus Avagadro]

I might counter in the interview where is the Surgeon General warning like we see on cigarettes and alcohol? What are safe doses? Safety caps? A 2yr old died in Colorado I believe when they ate a bottle of parents gummies. I would avoid the topic.