Addiction Archives

Social Justice

The Ever-Evolving Difficulties of Giving Housing to the Homeless

First introduced in 1992, the Housing First model suggested that we fight homelessness by first giving the homeless a place to live. Twenty-four years later, the study of a program in Hamilton, Ontario, sheds some light on how the system is working today.

Bettina Chang

News in Brief

This Cop Says It’s Time to Legalize All Drugs

Who exactly is prohibition supposed to be helping? After many years of enforcing drug laws as a police officer, Diane Goldstein's experience with an addicted family member changed her attitude for good.

Diane Goldstein

News in Brief

Remembering the Drug Court Revolution

Stories from the 25th anniversary celebration of the nation’s first drug court.

Lauren Kirchner

Social Justice

A Growing Number of Americans: Drug Abuse Is a Health Issue, Not a Crime

Other countries, like Canada and Switzerland, have shown how the shifting opinion can result in action.

Paul Hiebert

Social Justice

The 30 Top Thinkers Under 30: The Addiction Researcher Who Wants to Translate Science for a Broad Audience

For the month of April we're profiling the individuals who made our inaugural list of the 30 top thinkers under 30, the young men and women we predict will have a serious impact on the social, political, and economic issues we cover every day here at Pacific Standard.

Avital Andrews

Social Justice

Why ‘Substance Abuse’ Is a Label We Should All Reject

There is clear evidence that the phrases "substance abuse" and "substance abuser" harm, as well as disparage, people with addiction. It's time to ditch these terms.

Maia Szalavitz

Social Justice

Kicking Methadone With Johnny Winter

How sleight-of-hand—and obsessive-compulsive disorder—helped the guitarist shake 30 years of addiction.

Ted Scheinman

News in Brief

This Is (Finally) the Beginning of the End of the War on Drugs

With the advent of marijuana legalization, alternatives to incarceration, harm reduction as treatment, and other rational approaches to addiction, 2014 could be an unprecedented turning point.

Maia Szalavitz

Social Justice

Should Drug Treatment Aim to End Use or Reduce Harm?

Achieving one of those results is hard enough. And recent experiments suggest we may not be able to have both even if we want to.

Chris Uggen

Social Justice

The Seduction of Addiction: A Runner’s Confession

The psychological literature on exercise addiction can be confusing, but maybe that’s because we’re focusing too much on pathologizing the wrong thing.

James McWilliams