Episode Fifty Four | Just Opioid Financial Burden on Crime Labs

Just Opioid Financial Burden on Crime Labs

In episode twelve of our Drugs Season, Just Science speaks to Dr. Paul Speaker, from West Virginia University, about the economic burden our justice system has from opioid deaths. They are estimating that the crime labs alone are spending around 270 million dollars a year just on the opioid crisis. Laboratory budgets are not growing fast enough to handle this drain on resources. Listen along as Just Science delves into the data of the opioid crisis. This episode will conclude the FTCOE’s season on drugs.

This episode of Just Science is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence [Award 2016-MU-BX-K110].

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Paul J. Speaker is a faculty member of the West Virginia University Finance Department. Dr. Speaker also holds the position of Vice President of Operations Management Consultants LLC and the position of President of Forensic Science Management Consultants, LLC, which specializes in the business of forensics using the forensics of business. Dr. Speaker’s research activity is concentrated in economic modeling, including regulated industries, business valuation, process engineering, financial institutions, the role of not-for-profit institutions, the impact of technology, and the business of forensics. His teaching areas include corporate finance and business valuation. He has been active with curriculum design, integration of course work, and developments in distance learning technology. Speaker regularly serves as a consultant to several industries, including the forensic community, defense sector, energy sector, and banking and financial institutions. His clients include the giants in each of these industries, ASCLD, ATK, Peabody Energy, and Citigroup, respectively. He is an active participant in the Center for Executive Education programs, among other clients, serving Simonton Windows, Woodcraft, Ashland Coal, Inc., Massey Energy, the Department of Energy, and others. He has served as a consultant to Ashland Oil, West Virginia Petroleum Council, National Research Center for Coal and Energy, West Virginia Trust Fund, and the U.S. Department of Energy, and numerous forensic laboratories, among others. He has presented seminars and workshops across the energy sector and to the forensic community, including workshops at multiple ASCLD Symposia and the meetings of the California crime laboratory community. Dr. Speaker has been recognized for his teaching excellence. He has received Outstanding Teacher Awards from the College of Business and Economics twenty times in his career. Amongst others, he has been recognized for the College of Business and Economics Award for Outstanding Faculty Technology Implementation, a WVU Outstanding Teacher Award, the Golden Apple for Outstanding Faculty, Beta Gamma Sigma Professor of the Year, and a WVU Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching. Dr. Speaker has also been recognized by the College for Outstanding Service.