Join UCSF Archives and Special Collections for a book talk with Sue Rusche, author of Marketing Pleasure: How Addictive Drug Industries Tell Big Lies to Make Big Profits, followed by a conversation with William Burrough, MD, MPH.

Speaker Bios

Sue Rusche

Sue Rusche ran National Families in Action for 46 years. NFIA helped lead the national parent movement, which reduced marijuana use among adolescents and young adults by two-thirds between 1979 and 1992. NFIA collaborated with Wake Forest School of Medicine to create and implement the Addiction Studies Program for journalists and, later, for the states. The program introduced those who shape public opinion and implement public policy to the science around addiction. Ms. Rusche wrote the weekly e-newsletter, The Marijuana Report, during NFIA’s last decade. The e-newsletter reported the science around the effects of marijuana and showed how industry spins that information. When NFIA closed in 2023, the University of California, San Francisco, acquired the organization’s Drug Information Collection. In 2022, Ms. Rusche began writing and has just published the book, Marketing Pleasure: How Addictive Drug Industries Tell Big Lies to Make Big Profits. 

Once production expenses are met, 75% of proceeds from the sale of Marketing Pleasure will be donated equally between UCSF, two national organizations, Smart Approaches to Marijuana and the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions, and to her home state organization, Georgians for Responsible Marijuana Policy. 

William Burrough, MD, MPH

Dr. Billy Burrough is a primary care pediatrician and Assistant Clinical Professor in the Division of General Pediatrics at UCSF. He works in school-based health centers and a pediatric-focused federally qualified health center in Oakland, CA and provides care to youth at Alameda County Juvenile Justice Center, where he established and directs a substance use disorder clinic.  

In addition to his clinical roles, Dr. Burrough is the Adolescent Medicine Rotation Director for the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland Pediatrics Residency Program and a Clinical Site Director the Alameda Health System Addiction Medicine Fellowship. 

Dr. Burrough completed his residency in Pediatrics at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland after earning his undergraduate, medical doctorate, and public health degrees at the University of Wisconsin. His professional passions center on improving care for systems-impacted youth, with a particular focus on enhancing behavioral health and substance use services within the pediatric medical home. 

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