Substance

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.

With tens of thousands of Americans taking to the streets to demonstrate that “Black Lives Matter,” we have a rare chance to confront drug war violence, mass incarceration, and our own deepest misconceptions about black and white.

This valuable, newly updated resource for parents is based in the real world.

Saying "no" to my kids was harder than saying "no" to alcohol. But for their sake and mine, I had to learn to put myself first sometimes.

People tend not to hear about the prison drug dealing operations that succeed. Substance.com asks a veteran of the game to explain his system.

For the paper of record, addiction is always about this drug or that drug rather than the real causes.

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.

Millions of people worldwide endure traumatic injuries or deaths from cancer, AIDS, and, now, Ebola without access to the medication that could relieve their suffering. The international drug control system is to blame.

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.

Popular notions about who receives treatment are largely wrong. But what about the conventional wisdom that we should devote more resources to treatment to increase access? Let's look at the data.