Filter launched in New York City in September 2018. Our mission is to advocate through journalism for rational and compassionate approaches to drug use, drug policy and human rights.
Filter is owned and operated by The Influence Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. You can read about The Influence Foundation’s structure and funding here. You can follow Filter on Facebook, on X and on Bluesky—and sign up for our email newsletters here.
Editorial team
Will Godfrey – Editor-in-chief
Will is the founding editor-in-chief of Filter, and executive director of The Influence Foundation, the nonprofit behind Filter. He has worked as an editor and journalist in the drugs and human rights spaces for two decades. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of The Influence, covering drug policy and related areas, and also founded and ran Substance, another harm reduction-oriented news site. His previous roles include co-founding and editing an award-winning print publication written by and for incarcerated people in London.
Kastalia Medrano – Deputy Editor
Kastalia previously worked at a number of other media outlets and would not recommend the drug coverage at any of them. For a while she was also a syringe program peer worker in NYC, where she did outreach hep C testing and navigated participants through treatment.
Helen Redmond – Senior Editor
Helen is a multimedia journalist on the methadone, vaping and nicotine train. She is also a filmmaker. Her two documentaries about methadone are Liquid Handcuffs and Swallow THIS. As an LCSW, she has worked with people who use drugs for over two decades. Helen is an adjunct assistant professor and teaches a course about the War on Drugs at NYU. She lives in Harlem.
Alexander Lekhtman – Staff Writer
Alexander writes about the movement to end the War on Drugs. He grew up in New Jersey and swears it’s actually alright. He’s also a musician hoping to change the world through the power of ledger lines and legislation. Alexander was previously Filter‘s editorial fellow.
Kiran Sidhu – Tobacco Harm Reduction Fellow
Kiran is a London-based writer and journalist, who has has written for publications including the Guardian, the Telegraph and I Paper.
Kiran’s fellowship was previously supported by an independently administered tobacco harm reduction scholarship from Knowledge-Action-Change—an organization that has separately provided restricted grants and donations to Filter.
Jonathan Kirkpatrick – Tobacco Harm Reduction Fellow
Jonathan covers harm reduction and re-entry from Washington Corrections Center, where he’s currently incarcerated. He trains peer educators in HIV and hepatitis C harm reduction, and is a Teacher’s Assistant for re-entry workshops. His writing has been published by the Appeal, Truthout, Jewish Currents and the Seattle Journal of Social Justice.
Jonathan’s fellowship is supported by an independently administered tobacco harm reduction scholarship from Knowledge-Action-Change—an organization that has separately provided restricted grants and donations to Filter.
Filter was an official media partner of the 2019 Reform conference in St. Louis. Filter has also been an official partner of the Global Forum on Nicotine in Warsaw, Poland, for several years.
Contributors
David Abrams; Queen Adesuyi; Ben Adlin; Felipe Neis Araujo; Bolaji Akinwande; Anthony Anderson; Kenneth Anderson; Tom Angell; Chloe Ann-King; Shoshana Aronowitz
Charlie Baker; Rob Banks; Brishti Basu; Clive Bates; Josiah Bates; Quinn Bell; Sarah Beller; Amanda Bent; Biz Berthy; Claire Bodkin; Matthew Bonn; Chelsea Boyd; Elizabeth Brico; Tommy Brothers; Keith Brown; Nigel Brunsdon; Demetrius Buckley; Richard Burns; Marc Burrows; Mary Buser
Canadians for Sensible Drug Policy; Gianluca Capellani; Tessie Castillo; Judy Chang; Samrat Chowdhery; Dolores Cloward; Aliza Cohen; Gregory Conley; Michael Cooper; Adryan Corcione; James Cozine; John Cross; Gabriele Cruciata
Colleen Daniels; Arthur Debruyne; Patt Denning; Kristin Doneski; Brandon A. Dorfman; C Dreams; Jessie Dunleavy; Erika Dupuis
Rory Ellis; Abdul El-Sayed; Christian Eickelberg
Troy Farah; Jeselle S. Farias; Brooke Feldman; Guy Felicella; Aaron Ferguson; Seth Ferranti; Lexi Fisher; Joy Fishman; Shauna Fitzgerald; Rory Fleming; Taylor Fleming; Kevin Franciotti; David Frank; Rachel French; Zorina Frey
Grey Gardner; Tracie Gardner; Phil Garner; Lucia Geng; Drew Gibson; Giada Girelli; Gabrielle Glaser; Marewa Glover; Morgan Godvin; Ruth Goldsmith; Diane Goldstein; Mohawk Greene
Jonathan Haggerty; Ian Hamilton; Hugo Hanson; Jessica Harding; Katharine Neill Harris; Carl Hart; Jesse Harvey; Laura Haselden; Olivia Heffernan; Daliah Heller; Tracey Helton Mitchell; Victor Hernandez; Umme Hoque; DeAnna Hoskins; Ben Humphries; Kat Humphries
Jimmy Iakovos; Meg Inwood; Sam Iravani
H.K. Jackson; Kyle Jaeger; Adi Jaffe; Shilo Jama; Reija Jean; Erving Jean-Jacques; Doug Johnson; Linwood Johnson; Beverley Jones
Hasham Kamran; Kerwin Kaye; Jess Keefe; Arianne Keegan; Tyson Singh Kelsall; Iga Kender-Jeziorska; Bill Kinkle; Jonathan Kirkpatrick; Annie Kleykamp; Alison Knopf; Sessi Kuwabara Blanchard
Aleksey Lakhov; Michael Landl; M.L. Lanzillotta; Victoria Law; Jasmine Leigh; Antony Loewenstein; Sandy Lomonico; Kira London-Nadeau; Guido Long; Jason Lopez; Travis Lupick; Leili Lyman; Christina Lynch
Lucas Marten; Alexis Martin; Jessica Martinez; Patrick McDougall; Hannah McGowan; Michael McGrady; Ian McLoone; Sam Mellins; Colin Mendelsohn; Colin Miller; Ryan Mirvis; Tuyaa Montgomery; Michael J. Moore; Christopher Moraff; Daniel Moritz-Rabson; Jack Murtha; Ray Mwareya
Aruna Narayan; Rae Nieves; Brooke Nolan; Alex Norcia
Uche Olatunji; Tony O’Neill; Dinah Ortiz
Natalie Papillion; Stanton Peele; Olivia Pennelle; Marco Perduca; Maritza Perez; David Poses; Christian Prince; Steven Proctor
JS Rafaeli; Suchitra Rajagopalan; Trish Randall; Bruce Reilly; Zach Rhoads; Khary Rigg; Arthur Rizer; Scott Roberts; Jackie Rocheleau; Lauren Rodota; Christine Rodriguez; Ivy Ann Rosado; Marsha Rosenbaum; Simona Rosenfield; Elizabeth Ryan
Gen Sander; Jerzy Sandino; Kevin Sawyer; Simon Schatzberg; Florian Scheibein; Thea Sebastian; André Seidenberg; Sharda Sekaran; Abdullah Shihipar; Nicholas Slayton; Kiran Sidhu; Zachary Siegel; Molly Simmons; Caty Simon; April Smith; Zara Snapp; Brandon Soderberg; Aaron Stagoff-Belfort; Gerry Stimson; Dee-Dee Stout; Knina Strichartz; Lindsey Stroud; Sree T. Sucharitha; Amy C. Sullivan; Shane Sullivan; Maia Szalavitz;
Zac Talbott; Claudio Teixeira; Sara Tessier; Rhiannon Thomas; Michelle Tolson; Tessa Torgeson; Natasha Touesnard; Raphael Tsavkko Garcia; Ria Tsinas; Shanell Twan
Sheila P. Vakharia; Jenny Valentish; Jeevika Verma; Tony Vick; Louise Vincent; Niko Vorobyov; Nick Voyles
Carrie Wade; Linda Wang; Art Way; Allison Wilens; Adam Winstock; Neil Woods; Sheila Wren Hand
Claire Zagorski; Carlyn Zwarenstein
Erik Kubitschek; PXL Web Development Agency
Pitching guidelines and contact details
Please send all email correspondence to: Editor [at] filtermag.org.
We welcome pitches for feature-length articles around our subject areas, including investigative reports, op-eds, essays and interviews. Please send proposals (rather than drafts) and a sample of your previous work. Due to volume of pitches, we regret we cannot reply to them all; we will get back to you within a week if your idea is one we can use.
Corrections
We take our responsibilities seriously and are committed to correcting any factual errors. Please read our Corrections Policy to learn how to report an issue and what you can expect from us.
Donate to Filter
As a nonprofit publication, Filter is funded entirely by donations and grants. If you wish to support our reporting on drug use, drug policy and human rights, please donate using the button below. We’re grateful for your support.
