Benjamin Barsky

Associate Professor of Law, UC Law San Francisco

Dissertation Title: "Essays on Criminal Health Law and Policy"

How does criminal law enforcement affect health? This dissertation addresses this question through three studies that employ mixed empirical methodologies. Using descriptive quantitative methods, Chapter 1 studies the consequences of the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act—a law that criminalizes controlled substance prescribing via telemedicine without a preliminary in-person medical evaluation—for the practice of telemedicine in general and opioid use disorder treatment in particular. Using causal inference methods, Chapter 2 studies the influence of the take-home methadone policy—a policy implemented at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to increase access to opioid use disorder treatment—on treatment initiations and opioid overdoses among people recently released from jail and prison in Massachusetts. Using qualitative fieldwork methods, Chapter 3 studies how alternative emergency response programs—local government initiatives created in the wake of the George Floyd protests designed to decrease police involvement in health emergencies like behavioral health crises—inform theories of street-level criminal law enforcement.