Slate’s “Dear Prudence” Column Gives Bad Advice About Addiction
Prudie, we’re disappointed. Photo via I read Slate’s syndicated advice column, “Dear Prudence,” religiously—maybe even problematically. I love the dry, usually insightful tone of writer Emily Yoffe’s...
View ArticleWhy We Need to Stop Nora Volkow From Taking Over the World
Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Photo via The disease theory of addiction, which has always been with us in one form or another, now boasts Nora Volkow, the...
View ArticleCops Like Me Say Legalize All Drugs. Here’s Why.
Loud and clear. Photo via I was a police officer for 20 years, enforcing drug laws in California and thinking I was doing my part for society. But what made me think properly about drug use for the...
View ArticleMost People With Addiction Simply Grow Out of It: Why Is This Widely Denied?
The experiences of most young people with addiction are brushed under the carpet. Photo via When I stopped shooting coke and heroin, I was 23. I had no life outside of my addiction. I was facing...
View ArticlePower to the People Who Use Drugs: America’s Drug User Unions
No more yielding to reformists who try to help drug users without including them. Photo via In the smoke-filled living room of a condo in Greensboro, North Carolina, six people are engaged in a heated...
View ArticleWe Need to Talk About Kevin Sabet
Kevin Sabet addresses an audience as Patrick Kennedy looks on. Photo via “Alcohol [is] legal because of its cultural significance. However, I think if you surveyed every public health researcher and...
View ArticleOur #HarmReduction Twitter Chat: The Highlights
The harm reduction movement, which uses practical strategies to keep people who use drugs safer while respecting their right to make their own choices, is flourishing in 2015. Yesterday Substance.com...
View ArticleNever Before Has Our Approach to Drugs Improved So Much, So Fast
The progress we’ve made is exhilarating. Photo via There has never been a more exciting time to be writing and thinking about drugs and addiction. For most of the ‘80s through the ‘00s, policy and...
View ArticleMe and My Mug Shot: The Face of Addiction Stigma
“To avoid obsessing over that image, I have to dissociate myself from the person it depicts.” Photo via If there were awards for Worst Mug Shot Ever, mine would certainly be in the running. In 2010,...
View ArticleHere’s Why I Think Substance.com Mattered
Stanton Peele delivers the last rites. Photo via Substance.com was not your parents’ recovery website. In this, the final week of a publication that I’ve proudly served as a columnist, it’s worth...
View ArticleFacing Disturbing Truths About Pedophilia Could Help Us Keep Kids Safer
“One cannot choose to not be a pedophile, but one can choose to not be a child molester.” Photo via A guy I know was recently arrested for possessing child porn. We used to be friends but had a falling...
View ArticleIs Opioid-Addiction Racist?
Recent media reports have given significant attention to the spread of opioid addiction in suburban America. We can no longer view drug addiction as an inner-city issue that affects a small portion of...
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