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IU McKinney School of Law Professor Nicolas Terry is an expert voice in a new article, “How the Music Industry is Fighting the Overdose Epidemic” for the online music publication Pitchfork.

The article reveals that although the view has been spreading across the music industry that venues should in theory routinely stock naloxone nasal spray, experts, artists, and advocates say that “there are a variety of roadblocks to making that a reality: some legal, some financial, and some related to perception rather than substantial risk.”

Professor Terry told Pitchfork that he believes that perception and lack of education are the real barriers to acceptance. 

“I have read that some promoters say that it’s very difficult to get insurance,” he says. “I don’t think that’s a particularly real barrier. With so much about people who use drugs, addiction, and harm reduction, the greatest enemy is always stigma. It’s people thinking there’s something deathly wrong with these people because they suffer from a chronic disease. Would a promoter ever say, ‘I’m sorry, diabetic, you can’t bring insulin in’?”

Professor Terry is Executive Director of the Hall Center for Law and Health at IU McKinney, where he teaches healthcare and health policy courses. He is one of the permanent bloggers at the Bill of Health blog, a host of “The Week in Health Law” podcast at TWIHL.com, and @nicolasterry on twitter.