In this episode, PSM's Executive Director, Shabbir Imber Safdar, CFE, sits down with Sheriff Dorsey, who brings more than 25 years of law enforcement experience, for a candid conversation about one of the greatest public safety threats facing America today: the rise of fentanyl and the explosion of illegal pill presses.

The Sheriff also includes stories from undercover members of his team, who describe two recent incidents in their work: one where they followed a pill press from a U.S. border port of entry all the way to their county, and another where they were cataloging evidence at a drug lab and a shipment of methamphetamine showed up through a common express carrier.

Sheriff Dorsey outlines how drug trafficking networks exploit vulnerable communities, and what his team is doing to stop them. Sheriff Dorsey also reflects on the human cost of the opioid epidemic, emphasizing the need for community support, prevention efforts, and better resources for substance abuse treatment.

From large-scale pill press seizures to the challenge of shutting down drug supply routes, this episode offers a ground-level view of what it takes to keep communities safe in the midst of a national crisis.

In this episode of the PSM podcast, Executive Director Shabbir Safdar sits down with Luis Diestre, Founder and CEO of Translucent Data Lab and Professor at IE Business School. The conversation delves into the methodologies and technologies developed to combat illegal online pharmacies (IOPs) through data science and AI. It discusses the impact of IOPs on public health and the economy, the challenges faced in disrupting these networks, and the limitations of current monitoring technologies. Luis presents innovative approaches to identifying and mapping IOP networks, evaluates the effectiveness of disruption strategies, and highlights the potential health and economic benefits of removing illegal sales from the market.

In the latest episode of the PSM podcast, host Shabbir Imber Safdar, Executive Director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, is joined by Dr. William H. Grover, Associate Professor of Bioengineering at UC Riverside. They talk about the motivations and innovations of The Grover Lab, and how their low-cost innovations are helping to combat the global crisis of falsified and substandard medicines.

Dr. Grover introduces us to two of the groundbreaking tools developed by his lab:

🔹 The Mbira Sensor: A $5 device inspired by a 3,000-year-old African instrument that can distinguish deadly chemical substitutions, such as diethylene glycol for glycerol. 🔹 CandyCodes: A sprinkle-based authentication system that turns medicine capsules into verifiable, tamper-evident products.

These tools aren’t just creative. They’re practical, scalable, and potentially life-saving.