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 half a dozen mainstream digital media outlets and does not recommend the drug war coverage at any of them. She was also a syringe program peer worker in NYC, where she did outreach hep C testing and navigated participants through treatment. You can find most of her Filter writing here and here.
Helen Redmond – Senior Editor
Helen is a multimedia journalist and filmmaker. Her debut book is Liquid Handcuffs: Policing and Punishment in Methadone Clinics and the Future of Opioid Addiction Treatment. 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 at NYU.
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.
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; Bolaji Akinwande; Wendy Allison; Anthony Anderson; Kenneth Anderson; Tom Angell; Chloe Ann-King; Felipe Neis Araujo; Paul Armentano; Shoshana Aronowitz; Tucker Avra
Charlie Baker; John Keith Baker; Rob Banks; James Baratta; Ileane Barrera; Brishti Basu; Roger Bate; Clive Bates; Josiah Bates; Caitlin Becker; Quinn Bell; Sarah Beller; Will Belton; Amanda Bent; Biz Berthy; Christopher Blackwell; Claire Bodkin; Courtenay Harris Bond; Matthew Bonn; Benjamin Boyce; Chelsea Boyd; Elizabeth Brico; Tommy Brothers; Keith Brown; Nigel Brunsdon; Julian Buchanan; Demetrius Buckley; Richard Burns; Marc Burrows; Mattha Busby; Mary Buser
Eve Cable; Jeannie Cameron; Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy; Joana Canedo; Gianluca Capellani; Tessie Castillo; Andrzej Celinski; Judy Chang; Maria Chaplia; Destiny Chatman; Elizabeth Chiarello; Samrat Chowdhery; Azim Chowdhury; Dolores Cloward; Aliza Cohen; Samantha Colledge-Frisby; Gregory Conley; Michael Cooper; Daley Copper; Adryan Corcione; James Cozine; John Cross; Gabriele Cruciata; Martin Cullip; Chinazo Cunningham; J Gordon Curtis
Noah Daly; Colleen Daniels; Gary Daniels; Tod Davidson; Arthur Debruyne; Maddi Dellplain; Patt Denning; Hanna Liebman Dershowitz; Jennifer Dillon; Kristin Doneski; Brandon A. Dorfman; Sophie N. Dowdy; Stephen Downing; C Dreams; Ritika Dubey; Jessie Dunleavy; Ralph Dunuan; Erika Dupuis
Christian Eickelberg; Rory Ellis; Abdul El-Sayed; Liz Evans
Troy Farah; Jeselle S. Farias; Jack Farrell; Emily Feinstein; Brooke Feldman; Guy Felicella; Graham Fentham; Aaron Ferguson; Seth Ferranti; Lexi Fisher; Joy Fishman; Shauna Fitzgerald; Juliet Flam-Ross; Rory Fleming; Taylor Fleming; Sean Fogler; Marlie Ford; Kevin Franciotti; David Frank; Derek Frasure; Kassandra Frederique; Rachel French; Zorina Frey; Joseph Friedman
Tana Ganeva; Kevin Garcia; Charles Gardner; Grey Gardner; Tracie Gardner; Phil Garner; Lucia Geng; Breanna Georges; Drew Gibson; Kirsten Gibson; Giada Girelli; Gabrielle Glaser; Melody Glenn; Marewa Glover; Dustin Godfrey; Morgan Godvin; Jackie Goldman; Ruth Goldsmith; Diane Goldstein; André Gomes; Kristen Gonzalez; Jack Gorsline; Oscar Graham; Arianne Grand-Gassaway; Mohawk Greene; Marc Gunter; Pratik Gupta; Laura Guzman
Nicholas Hacheney; Brian Hackel; Jonathan Haggerty; Carrie Lou Hamilton; Ian Hamilton; Hugo Hanson; Jessica Harding; Kara Harmon; Princess Harmony; Katharine Neill Harris; Leah Harris; Carl Hart; Ifetayo Harvey; Jesse Harvey; Laura Haselden; Ethan Hawes; Hannah Head; Olivia Heffernan; Daliah Heller; Tracey Helton Mitchell; Victor Hernandez; Lindsey Hiebert; Umme Hoque; DeAnna Hoskins; Aaron Houston; Athena Huckaby; Logan Hullinger; Ben Humphries; Kat Humphries; Brandon Hutchison
Jimmy Iakovos; Manaka Infante; Meg Inwood; Sam Iravani
H.K. Jackson; Isaac Jackson; Kyle Jaeger; Adi Jaffe; Shilo Jama; Emma James; Alaina Jaster; Reija Jean; Erving Jean-Jacques; Nafisat Dasola Jimoh; Doug Johnson; Linwood Johnson; Beverley Jones; Danielle Jones; Ive Jones; Allison Jordan
Andrew Kaleigh; Hasham Kamran; Josh Kasoff; Kerwin Kaye; Jess Keefe; Arianne Keegan; Tomas Keen; Tyson Singh Kelsall; Iga Kender-Jeziorska; Lital Khaikin; Khurshid Khoja; Bill Kinkle; Jonathan Kirkpatrick; Annie Kleykamp; Alison Knopf; Gillian Kolla; Manisha Krishnan; Sessi Kuwabara Blanchard
Aleksey Lakhov; Michael Landl; M.L. Lanzillotta; Victoria Law; Jasmine Leigh; Barry Lessin; Antony Loewenstein; Sandy Lomonico; Kira London-Nadeau; Guido Long; Jason Lopez; Elizabeth Lore; Nancy Loucas; Travis Lupick; Leili Lyman; Christina Lynch
Marilena Marchetti; Lucas Marten; Alexis Martin; Carlos Martinez; Jessica Martinez; Alex Mauri; Aden McCracken; Patrick McDougall; Hannah McGowan; Michael McGrady; Phoenix Beck McGreevy; Thomas McLellan; Ian McLoone; Sam Mellins; Colin Mendelsohn; Tavaria Merritt; Anna Meyer; Liam Michaud; Colin Miller; Michelle Minton; Ryan Mirvis; Suhanee Mitragotri; Ryan Montague; Tuyaa Montgomery; Michael J. Moore; Christopher Moraff; Kari Morissette; Daniel Moritz-Rabson; Ryan Moser; Kim “Skip” Murray; Jack Murtha; Ray Mwareya
Aruna Narayan; Rae Nieves; Brooke Nolan; Jeff Noland; Alex Norcia
Sean O’Callaghan; Gabriel Oke; Uche Olatunji; Tony O’Neill; Dinah Ortiz; Jason Ortiz; Susan Ousterman; Akwasi Owusu-Bempah; John Oyston
Cat Packer; Dawn Marie Paley; Maria Papaioannoy; Natalie Papillion; Stanton Peele; Olivia Pennelle; Marco Perduca; Christina Perez; Christy Perez; Maritza Perez Medina; William Perry; Jake Pesaruk; David Poses; Ed Prideaux; Christian Prince; Steven Proctor
Thomas J. Rachko Jr.; JS Rafaeli; Suchitra Rajagopalan; Trish Randall; Holly Regan; Tahira Rehmatullah; Bruce Reilly; Kevin Revier; Zach Rhoads; Khary Rigg; Justice Rivera; Arthur Rizer; Elizabeth F. S. Roberts; Scott Roberts; Jackie Rocheleau; Lauren Rodota; Christine Rodriguez; Patricia A. Roos; Ivy Ann Rosado; Marsha Rosenbaum; Simona Rosenfield; Sam Rossi; Prince Ruhode; Danielle Russell; Kellen Russoniello; Elizabeth Ryan
Maria Luísa Salazar; Brittany Salerno; Paul Samuels; Gen Sander; Jerzy Sandino; Sydney Sauer; Kevin Sawyer; Simon Schatzberg; Florian Scheibein; Thea Sebastian; Kali-olt Sedgemore; André Seidenberg; Sharda Sekaran; Jason Semprini; Kevan Shah; Nicholas Shapiro; Abdullah Shihipar; Ashley Shukait; Zachary Siegel; Molly Simmons; Caty Simon; Sarah Sinclair; Nicholas Slayton; Savannah Sly; April Smith; Cassandra Smith; David Smith; Zara Snapp; Sam Snodgrass; Brandon Soderberg; Natalie Spinney; Aaron Stagoff-Belfort; Thomas Stanford; Jeffrey Steen; Gerry Stimson; Dee-Dee Stout; Knina Strichartz; Lindsey Stroud; Antonio Matheus Suarez; Sree T. Sucharitha; Kimberly Sue; Leslie W. Suen; Amy C. Sullivan; Shane Sullivan; Roberto Sussman; Maia Szalavitz
Zac Talbott; Talk Overdose; Sam Taylor; Claudio Teixeira; Ana Clara Telles; Sara Tessier; Kinna Thakarar; Rhiannon Thomas; Shaleen Title; Michelle Tolson; Tessa Torgeson; Natasha Touesnard; Raphael Tsavkko Garcia; Ria Tsinas; Shanell Twan; Mark Tyndall
Sheila P. Vakharia; Jenny Valentish; Wesley Vaughan; Ariel Vegosen; Jeevika Verma; Timothy Vermillion; Tony Vick; Louise Vincent; Sara Vogel; Niko Vorobyov; Nick Voyles
Carrie Wade; Rafik Nader Wahbi; Shoshana Walter; Linda Wang; John W. Ward; Art Way; Michelle Wazan; Liz Weber; Sarah Weber; Anna Wilcox; Allison Wilens; Charles Williams; Jawanza James Williams; Dean Wilson; Matthew Wilson; Adam Winstock; Neil Woods; Sheila Wren Hand
Derek Yach; Timothy James Young
Claire Zagorski; Lucas Zane; Carlyn Zwarenstein
Filter Staff; 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.
