Five Studies: Mental Health Courts Are Finding Their Footing
Can judges work with psychiatrists to help solve mass incarceration?
How America Overdosed on Drug Courts
Hailed as the most compassionate way for the criminal justice system to deal with addicts, drug courts were designed to balance punishment with rehabilitation. But after 25 years, the verdict is in: Drug courts embolden judges to practice medicine without a license—and they put lives in danger.
Here’s What’s Wrong With How U.S. Doctors Respond to Painkiller Misuse
Too often, Americans with painful medical conditions who misuse pain pills like Oxycontin are denied further treatment and even prosecuted. There are more effective, enlightened responses—as the U.K. has shown for decades.
The Drug Lord With a Social Mission
Matt Bowden (sometimes known as Starboy, an "interdimensional traveler") helped create one of the most viral outbreaks of new drugs in history. He might also have the antidote.
Never Before Has Our Approach to Drugs Improved So Much, So Fast
We're winning: More progress has been made toward enlightened drug policies and treatment in the past five years than in the previous 25. Here's an advocacy agenda to take us even closer to the future we need.
One Hundred Years Ago, Prohibition Began in Earnest—and We’re Still Paying for It
On December 17, 1914, Congress passed the Harrison Act, making non-medical opium and cocaine illegal. It was really about punishment, not public health. And it set the tone for a disastrous century.
The ‘New York Times’ Is Hooked on Drug du Jour Journalism
For the paper of record, addiction is always about this drug or that drug rather than the real causes.
It’s Time to Reclaim the Word ‘Recovery’
It's empowering to say publicly that you are in recovery from addiction. But for some, recovery is a members-only club for people who are totally abstinent. That leaves most of us out in the cold.
DIY Drugs and the Digital Future of Getting High
Journalist Mike Power broke the story of the drug revolution that the rest of the media largely ignores—he even created a drug of his own to prove it. He tells us how legal highs and the Internet are transforming use and challenging policy.