MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
One of the winners of this year's MacArthur genius grants has spent decades on the front lines of America's deadly opioid crisis. Nabarun Dasgupta is a researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who also works on the streets, developing programs that help people using drugs survive. NPR addiction correspondent Brian Mann reports. And a note, the McArthur Foundation is a sponsor of NPR.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Last year, Nabarun Dasgupta, who goes by Nab, was in his campus office digging through reams of local drug death data that by his own description, he scrutinizes obsessively, and he found something unexpected. Here's Dasgupta speaking with NPR in 2024.
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NABARUN DASGUPTA: I was going through state by state, and almost all the graphs all kind of pointed downwards.
MANN: Dasgupta was one of the first scientists in the country to detect a historic, hopeful shift.
DASGUPTA: It has been a complete shock, the numbers declining in the way that they have been. I thought - it's even hard to talk about because it's, after all this time looking at overdose deaths, this is what we have been hoping for.
MANN: In recognizing Dasgupta's work, the MacArthur Foundation pointed to his groundbreaking research. They also recognized his work outside the lab. Starting in rural towns in North Carolina, Dasgupta helped develop a national network that samples street drugs, part of an early warning system that detects toxic chemicals being mixed into the drugs sold by dealers. He also cofounded a national effort called the Remedy Alliance/For the People that distributes huge amounts of naloxone. That's the drug that reverses opioid overdoses. Maya Doe-Simkins is Remedy Alliance's codirector.
MAYA DOE-SIMKINS: The work that Nab is involved with definitely saves lives, to the tune of tens of thousands of people.
MANN: Doe-Simkins says Dasgupta is one of the few researchers studying addiction who has deep sources of information and knowledge in street communities where drug use happens.
DOE-SIMKINS: Oftentimes, there's a disconnect. And Nab is different.
MANN: Dasgupta says he was stunned to have his work recognized by the MacArthur Foundation. He told NPR he received the news at a bittersweet moment. His team in Chapel Hill had gathered for a ceremony to honor one of Dasgupta's closest collaborators, an addiction activist in North Carolina named Louise Vincent. Vincent died in August after struggling with health complications from her own street drug use.
DASGUPTA: I walked back into my office and closed the door because I needed a moment. And that's when I got a call from the foundation. And I don't know if it's possible to simultaneously cry tears of joy out of one eye and grief out of the other, but that's what that moment really felt like.
MANN: The MacArthur Foundation is recognizing and supporting Dasgupta's work at a time when it's under attack. The Trump administration is pushing to shift funding and support away from programs like Dasgupta's, known as harm reduction, that help people using street drugs avoid severe illness and death. Critics say harm reduction can enable or prolong drug use, though those claims haven't been borne out by research. Dasgupta said he's convinced by the data that harm reduction works, helping people survive and recover. He also believes offering health care to people who can't or won't stop using drugs is the right thing to do.
DASGUPTA: I think harm reduction is a problem-solving strategy that's based on the ancient wisdom that all lives have dignity and value, regardless of what people put in their bodies.
MANN: Drug deaths are now at their lowest level in the U.S. in half a decade. But fentanyl, methamphetamines and other substances are still causing more than 70,000 fatal overdoses a year. Dasgupta says this $800,000 genius grant will help him keep fighting to save more lives.
Brian Mann, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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