[![jeff-singer-cropped.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/bio_picture_mobile/public/2024-05/jeff-singer-cropped.jpg?itok=ibmjoWhg)](https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/2024-05/2024-05-02-Cato%20Institute-Jeff%20Singer--7.jpg) 

# Jeffrey A. Singer 

Former Senior Fellow

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Jeffrey A. Singer is a former senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He is President Emeritus and founder of Valley Surgical Clinics Ltd., the largest and oldest group private surgical practice in Arizona, and has been in private practice as a general surgeon for more than 35 years.

From 2017 to 2026, he was also a visiting fellow at the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix. Singer is a member of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the American Council on Science and Health. From 1994 to 2016, he was a regular contributor to *Arizona Medicine*, the journal of the Arizona Medical Association. He served on the Advisory Board Council of the Center for Political Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University from 2014 to 2018. He writes and speaks extensively on regional and national public policy, with a specific focus on the areas of health care policy and the harmful effects of drug prohibition.

He received his BA from Brooklyn College (City University of New York) and his MD from New York Medical College. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

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#### Featured Content 

[![](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/brightcove/videos/images/posters/image_806.jpg?itok=oYsmD0sR)](https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-video/harm-reduction-shifting-war-drugs-war-drug-related-deaths) 

Cato Video 

### [Harm Reduction: Shifting from a War on Drugs to a War on Drug-Related Deaths](/multimedia/cato-video/harm-reduction-shifting-war-drugs-war-drug-related-deaths) 

Featuring [Jeffrey A. Singer](https://www.cato.org/people/jeffrey-singer) 

While government efforts to reduce the supply of opioids for nonmedical use have reduced the volume of both legally manufactured prescription opioids and opioid prescriptions, deaths from opioid overdoses are nevertheless accelerating. Research shows the increase is due in part to substitution of illegal heroin for now harder‐​to‐​get prescription opioids.

[![Medicine-photo](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2020-10/Medicine-photo-min-min.jpg?itok=eeaise9C)](https://www.cato.org/white-paper/drug-reformation-end-governments-power-require-prescriptions) 

Study 

### [Drug Reformation: End Government’s Power to Require Prescriptions](/white-paper/drug-reformation-end-governments-power-require-prescriptions) 

By [Jeffrey A. Singer](https://www.cato.org/people/jeffrey-singer) and [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) 

Government‐​imposed prescription requirements violate the rights of individuals to access the medicines they want. Evidence suggests that government‐​imposed prescription requirements make patients *less* safe, not more.

[![A bottle of prescription oxycodone, open on a table with an American flag in the background](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/content_teaser/public/2021-01/GettyImages-900309188.jpg?itok=QfqxhdAl)](https://www.cato.org/outside-articles/todays-nonmedical-opioid-users-are-not-yesterdays-patients-implications-data) 

Journal of Pain Research 

### [Today’s Nonmedical Opioid Users Are Not Yesterday’s Patients; Implications of Data Indicating Stable Rates of Nonmedical Use and Pain Reliever Use Disorder](/outside-articles/todays-nonmedical-opioid-users-are-not-yesterdays-patients-implications-data) 

By [Jeffrey A. Singer](https://www.cato.org/people/jeffrey-singer) 

According to the narrative underlying current policies aimed at reducing opioid-related deaths, the problem can be traced to a dramatic increase in opioid prescribing that began in the late 1990s.