Oral history interview with Michael Botticelli, 2020
Abstract
Michael Botticelli discusses his service in the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) from 2012 to 2017 during the presidency of Barack Obama. Botticelli focuses on the shift in national strategy with a new emphasis on addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery, and under which addiction is treated as a public health issue, rather than a criminal justice issue. Botticelli describes the relationship between ONDCP and other relevant federal agencies, and outlines the process by which ONDCP both supports and borrows from policies developed by local governments. Reflecting on the administration's response to the opioid epidemic, Botticelli emphasizes the impact of President Obama and his cabinet secretaries speaking directly about the epidemic and addiction and recovery initiatives in their public communications and meetings with affected families. Also discussed are the importance of Botticelli's lived experience as a person in recovery to the making of national policy and the reduction of popular stigma surrounding addiction, the importance of the language used to describe addiction, and the challenge of collecting accurate and timely data about the ongoing course of the opioid epidemic
Presidents--United States; Drug addiction--Alternative treatment--United States; Drug addiction--Treatment--United States; Opioid abuse--United States; Public health--United States; Botticelli, Michael, 1958-; Obama, Barack; United States. Office of National Drug Control Policy
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2020
Physical Description
39 pages
Note (Biographical)
Michael Botticelli served as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) from 2015 to 2017. Botticelli also served as deputy director of ONDCP from 2012 until his appointment as director in 2015. Prior to joining ONDCP, he worked at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in a variety of roles from 1994 to 2012. After leaving the federal government, Botticelli was named executive director of the Grayken Center for Addiction Medicine at Boston Medical Center
Note
Interviewed by Terrell D. Frazier on October 22, 2020. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Michael Botticelli, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2022