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Brian Johnson, MD: 190th President of OCMS in Syracuse BY JERRY HOFFMAN ON NOV. 9, BRIAN JOHNSON, MD, WILL BE INAUGUR ATED A S THE 190TH PRESIDENT OF THE ONONDAGA COUNT Y MEDICAL SOCIE T Y AT THE SOCIE T Y'S ANNUAL DINNER MEE TING. DR. JOHNSON IS Director of Addiction Medicine and Pain Medicine at Upstate M e d i c a l Un i v e r s i t y. H e c a m e t o Syracuse in 2009. Joyce Garber, MD, a fellow psychiatrist and then president of the county medical society, encouraged Dr. Johnson to become a member of the county and state medical societies, which he did. As he launches his year as president, Dr. Johnson will have a bully pulpit to advance his concerns and views of the opioid drug epidemic in our community, state and nation, as well as address other issues including tobacco and a lcohol abuse. He is well-suited and trained to assume this vital role. D u r i n g h i s y e a r a s p r e s i d e n t , Dr. Johnson hopes to increase diversity a mong members a nd to conv ince a n increa sed number of younger physi- cians to become members. The latter goal will help to lower the average age of members. One of his biggest selling points to young nonmembers is the tremendous influence that lawmakers in Albany and Washing ton play in determining how medicine is practiced a nd f ina nced. Physicians of all ages must get involved and must pay attention to these matters. W hen I i nt er v iewed Dr. Joh n son in his off ice at Upstate, he pointed to a Sunday, Sept. 24 two-page stor y in The New York Times by Nicholas Kristof, a regular columnist for the Times. Kristof 's story was headlined "How to Win A War on Drugs." It went on to explain that, unlike the United States, Portugal treats addiction as a medica l problem, not a criminal justice problem. In the final paragraph the columnist writes that: "The lesson that Portugal o„ers is that while we cannot eradicate heroin, it's pos- sible to save the lives of drug users — if we are willing to treat them not as criminals but as sick, su„ering human beings who need helping hands, not handcu„s." Dr. Johnson is a strong supporter of decriminalization of drug abusers, which he believes is more e„ective and less costly. He is critical of federal subsidies used to grow tobacco. In the long run they cost local, state and the U.S. government far more in terms of lost lives and the amount of money spent to deliver health care to treat smokers and those impacted by secondhand smoke. Other countries around the world are most willing to welcome tobacco companies who produce extra revenue for these nations, but overlook the subsequent deaths and costs related to treat patients for tobacco- related ailments. Dr. Johnson is pleased that smoking is declining in the U.S. but is troubled that tobacco firms are heavily marketing vaping products to children. Dr. Johnson said that this is the first step that more and more youngsters are taking that ultimately leads to addiction. A s a n addiction medicine a nd pa in medicine specialist, he favors international law sanctions on tobacco championed by Harold Hongju Koh in the 2016 spring issue of the Harvard International Law Journal. Koh, who is a Sterling Professor of International Law at Yale Law School, authored an article titled "Global Tobacco Control as a Health and Human Rights Imperative." "My bottom line is that tobacco con- trol should be world trade law's number one hu ma n r i g ht s a nd publ ic hea lt h imperative," Koh said in the article. "Of all consumer products, tobacco has proven uniquely dangerous to human health. The massive scientific findings on this issue are indisputable." Without international trade law restric- tion, he predicts "in the t went y-f irst century, 1 billion people are expected to die from cigarette smoking" Medica l Liability Mutua l Insurance C ompa ny, New York S t at e 's l a r ge s t professional liability insurance carrier, recently published volume two of Risk Management Tips for Today's Medical Practice. Tip 14 deals with drug seeking patients, a nd asser ts that "hea lthca re professionals share in the responsibility for minimizing drug abuse and diversion." Physicians are tasked with di„erentiating patients in need of e„ective pain man- agement from those who may be seeking drugs for inappropriate reasons. The tip consists of 13 recommendations that "are intended to provide guidance for healthcare providers when confronted by drug seek- ing patients." In West er n New York , t he Seneca Nation of Indians is fighting an opioid drug epidemic. A 2014 study by the Substance A bu s e a nd Ment a l Hea lt h S er v ic e s Administration determined that Native Americans in this country had the highest mortality rate from prescription opioid overdoses of any racial or ethnic group. Native Americans had the second highest mortality rate from heroin. Non-Hispanic whites were the highest. Gerald N. "Jerry" Ho•man was chief executive o cer of the Onondaga County Medical S oc iety f ro m 19 81 until hi s retirement on Jan. 31, 2014 , and is co- author of two books, Medical Malpractice Insurance: A Legislator's View, and The History of Local Medical Care: Celebrating Physicians Past and Present, 1806-2006. ■ M D N E W S .C O M /// M D N E W S C E N T R A L N Y ■ 2 017 H E A LT H C A R E P E R S P E C T I V E 0 5