Campbell/Spillane Substance Use Research - Interview with Beny Primm

Abstract

Dr. Beny J. Primm, M.D., helped found the Addiction Research Treatment Corporation (ARTC) and has been the Executive Director ever since. Located in Brooklyn, New York, the ARTC is one of the largest minority non-profit community-based substance abuse treatment programs in the country, treating over 2,300 men and women from underserved communities. Dr. Primm was also President of the Urban Resource Institute, an umbrella organization that supports various community-based initiatives and social service programs for battered women, the developmentally disabled, substance abusers, and those infected with HIV and AIDS. A national authority on drug addiction, Dr. Primm served as an adviser to the National Drug Abuse Policy Office since the Nixon administration. Dr. Primm is also internationally recognized as one of the world's foremost experts on HIV and AIDS, an area of study he pursued initially due to the disease's intimate relationship with addiction and the epidemic levels of infection among I.V. drug users. He served on the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic under President Reagan. Dr. Primm was later appointed to the U.S. National Drug Abuse Advisory Council, and headed the Office of Treatment Improvement, an agency of the government’s Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Services Administration. He also represented the U.S. at numerous international conferences, including the World Health Organization's conference in Geneva and the International Conference for Ministers of Health on AIDS prevention in London. Widely published, he wrote over thirty articles on addiction, which have appeared in numerous medical texts and journals. He also delivered speeches, lectures and keynote addresses around the world, and has been a visiting lecturer at a dozen different academic institutions, including Columbia University, Harvard University and New York University. In 2014, the year before his death, he released his memoir, which he co-authored with John S. Friedman, entitled The Healer: A Doctor’s Crusade Against Addiction and AIDS. Dr. Primm passed away on October 16, 2015. Sources: “Dr. Beny J. Primm” The HistoryMakers. https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/dr-beny-j-primm-39 Accessed 09 June 2023. “Beny Primm” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beny_Primm Accessed 09 June 2023.