People

Luther Elliott
Luther C. Elliott, PhD
NYU School of Global Public Health - Associate Research Scientist
Email: luther@nyu.edu
Education
Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Substance Abuse, Behavioral Science Training Program, NDRI, Inc.
PhD, Anthropology, New York University
MA, Anthropology, New York University
BA, English/French, University of Connecticut, Storrs
Research Interests
Opioid dependence and overdose, Substance use careers, Interactive media, Non-traditional treatment paradigms, Behavioral "addictions", Ethnographic methods, Psychedelics
BIO
Luther Elliott is a cultural and medical anthropologist who focuses on pathways to substance misuse and behavioral addictions. Dr. Elliott’s interests in vulnerable subcultures and populations led him to the Institute for Special Populations Research (ISPR) at NDRI following his PhD work (New York University, 2006) with emergent subcultures of psychedelic drug use. Since then, he has collaborated with senior researchers, Bruce Johnson, Eloise Dunlap, and Andrew Golub on studies of marijuana use (R01DA013690), Hurricane Katrina’s evacuees (R01DA021783), and veterans’ health (R01AA020178). Dr. Elliott recently served as principal investigator on a 3-year study of developmental relationships between video game and substance use (R01DA027761) and is currently serving as co-investigator on a study of opioid treatment program disruption in the wake of Hurricane Sandy (6HITEP140014-01-03) and Co-Investigator and Project Director on a prospective study of military veterans’ overdose risks and prevention efforts (R01DA036754).
Projects
Principal Investigator, Evaluation of a Community-Based Education, Navigation, and Support (CENS) Intervention to Reduce Opioid-Related Harms Among Military Veterans. Active
Principal Investigator, Expanding Opioid Overdose Prevention Program Capacity in New York City. Active
Principal Investigator, Impact of Pharmaceutical Industry Messaging on the Opioid Crisis among U.S. Military Veterans. Active
Principal Investigator, Overdose Risk Management and Compensation in the Era of Naloxone. Active
Principal Investigator, Exploratory Mapping of Kratom Use Patterns and Markets in NYC. Completed
Publications

Recent

Scheidell JD, Elliott LC, Bennett AS, Mahachi M, Lapple D, Nelson JA, Hobbs MM (2024).
Evaluation of self-directed specimen collection for chlamydia and gonorrhea testing among people who use drugs
International Journal of STD and AIDS, 35 (3), 217-227. doi: 10.1177/09564624231215859.

Frank D, Elliott L, Cleland CM, Walters SM, Joudrey PJ, Russell DM, Meyerson BE, Bennett AS (2023).
“As safe as possible”: A qualitative study of opioid withdrawal and risk behavior among people who use illegal opioids
Harm Reduction Journal, 20 (158), 158. doi: 10.1186/s12954-023-00893-9. PMCID: PMC10605476.

Pamplin JR, King C, Cooper C, Bennett AS, Elliott L, Davis CS, Rouhani S, Townsend TN (2023).
Pathways to racial disparities in the effects of Good Samaritan laws: A mixed methods pilot study
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 249, 110823. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2023.110823.

Elliott L, Chen Y, Goodman M, Bennett AS (2023).
Distal factors associated with proximal overdose risk behaviors and recent non-fatal overdose among a sample of people who use illicit opioids in New York City
Journal of Drug Issues [Epub 2023 Apr 24]. doi: 10.1177/00220426231168081.

Khan MR, Hoff L, Elliott L, Scheidell JD, Pamplin JR, Townsend TN, Irvine NM, Bennett AS (2023).
Racial/ethnic disparities in opioid overdose prevention: Comparison of the naloxone care cascade in White, Latinx, and Black people who use opioids in New York City
Harm Reduction Journal, 21 (1), 24. doi: 10.1186/s12954-023-00736-7. PMCID: PMC9959933.

Dr. Elliott's Google Scholar Profile