The Opioid Industry Documents Archive: National Symposium 2025, Day 3: Histories and Stories of the Opioid Crisis

David Herzberg is a Professor of History at the University at Buffalo (SUNY) whose research explores the nature and trajectory of drug commerce, drug use, and drug policy in America, with a primary focus on psychoactive pharmaceuticals. His work has appeared in numerous scholarly and medical journals, in popular media, and in three books: White Market Drugs: Big Pharma and the Hidden History of Addiction in America (University of Chicago Press, 2020), Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Opioids in America (University of California Press, 2023), and Happy Pills in America: From Miltown to Prozac (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009). He is also co-editor of Social History of Alcohol and Drugs: An Interdisciplinary Journal, the peer-reviewed journal of the Alcohol and Drug History Society. 

Domenic Esposito is an artist and social activist who has achieved international attention through his sculptural execution of a massive opioid spoon placed on the doorsteps of major pharmaceutical giants. The Opioid Spoon is a symbolic eight hundred pound, ten-foot metal replication of a simple household utensil modified to cook and inject opioids. The Spoon is crafted in honor of his own family’s struggles and those of thousands of families who have lost loved ones to the opioid epidemic.  

Esposito went on to establish the Opioid Spoon Project, a nonprofit that continues to serve as a solution-based platform for those affected by the opioid crisis. He has worked alongside Nan Goldin and other artists organizing protests and marches regarding the opioid crisis. His artwork has been featured in the New York Times, The Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, Le Monde, Frieze Magazine, Artnet news, Vice, ARTnews, and many other publications around the globe.  

Domenic’s work has been exhibited in a range of galleries and art fairs across the U.S., including Beacon Gallery, Boston; Piano Craft Gallery, Boston; Westbeth Gallery, New York; and Insight Artspace, New York. Placement of the spoon includes Art Basel Miami, Chicago Art Fair, among others. 

Alexis Pleus is the founder and executive director of Truth Pharm, a nonprofit organization with a focus on raising awareness, reducing the stigma, educating and advocating to reduce the harms caused by substance use.  

Pleus is a licensed professional engineer with over 25 years of experience in the design and construction industry, has been a corporate trainer for over 20 years, and was an adjunct professor for 9 years in the Civil Engineering program at SUNY Broome. In 2014, she lost her oldest son, Jeff, to a heroin overdose. In response, Pleus founded Truth Pharm, an organization that is deeply committed to harm reduction, social and racial justice issues as we move forward in addressing the current overdose epidemic.  

Pleus serves on a statewide coalition to End Overdose in NY and she’s the Co-chair for the New York State Harm Reduction Association. She serves on the National Coalition for Harm Reduction Funding and the Opioid Network. She has spoken at Congressional hearings, the International Harm Reduction Conference, as well as other events.