Filter launched in September 2018 and is based in New York City. 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 and Twitter, or sign up for our daily or weekly 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 in the drugs and human rights spaces for over 15 years. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of The Influence, covering drug policy and related areas, and also founded and ran a harm reduction-oriented news site named Substance. He previously served as editor-in-chief of the addiction-focused site The Fix, and co-founded and edited Voice of the Ville, an award-winning print publication for incarcerated people in London.
Kastalia Medrano – Deputy Editor
Kastalia is a Manhattan-based journalist covering drugs, mental illness and public health. She’s previously written for outlets including Newsweek, VICE and Gizmodo, and also works for a Brooklyn syringe program field-testing low-income New Yorkers for hepatitis C. She uses meth.
Helen Redmond – Senior Editor
Helen has written about nicotine, mental health and drug policy for publications including Al Jazeera, AlterNet, Harper’s and The Influence. As an LCSW, she works with drug users in medical and community mental health settings. An expert on tobacco harm reduction, she provides training and consultation on mental health, nicotine use and THR, and in 2016 organized the first Tobacco Harm Reduction Conference in the U.S. Helen is also a documentary filmmaker, and produces original video for Filter.
Alex Norcia – Staff Writer
Alex previously worked as a reporter and copy editor at VICE. His writing about tobacco harm reduction, psychedelics and many other subjects has been published in The New York Times Magazine, The Columbia Journalism Review, The Nation and The Daily Beast, among other outlets.
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.
Umme Hoque – Editorial Fellow
Umme is a journalist and editor based in New Mexico. She’s written about human rights, politics, education and climate, with an interest in the impact of social and public policies on disenfranchised communities. She also works as an organizer and advocate, working to build a future with education, housing and health care for all.
Kevin Garcia – Tobacco Harm Reduction Fellow
Kevin began working in harm reduction as a health educator, providing street-based syringe access services for people who inject drugs. He was later a bilingual medical case manager, providing case management for people living with HIV/AIDS. He has also been a chapter leader and member of the board of directors at Students for Sensible Drug Policy He plans to start an MSW/MPH program in fall of 2021. Kevin’s tobacco harm reduction 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 support Filter.
Filter was proud to be an official media partner of the 2019 Reform conference in St. Louis.
Contributors
David Abrams; Queen Adesuyi; Ben Adlin; Felipe Neis Araujo; Bolaji Akinwande; Anthony Anderson; Kenneth Anderson; Tom Angell; Chloe Ann-King; Shoshana Aronowitz
Rob Banks; 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; 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; John Cross; Gabriele Cruciata
Colleen Daniels; Arthur Debruyne; Patt Denning; Kristin Doneski; Brandon A. Dorfman; Sophie N. Dowdy; 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; Joy Fishman; Shauna Fitzgerald; Rory Fleming; Taylor Fleming; Kevin Franciotti; David Frank; Rachel French; Zorina Frey
Grey Gardner; Tracie Gardner; 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; Olivia Heffernan; Daliah Heller; Tracey Helton Mitchell; Victor Hernandez; DeAnna Hoskins; Kat Humphries
Sam Iravani; Kyle Jaeger; Adi Jaffe; Shilo Jama; Reija Jean; Erving Jean-Jacques; Doug Johnson; Beverley Jones
Hasham Kamran; Kerwin Kaye; Jess Keefe; Arianne Keegan; Iga Kender-Jeziorska; Bill Kinkle; 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
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
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; 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; 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; Louise Vincent; Niko Vorobyov; Nick Voyles
Carrie Wade; Linda Wang; Allison Wilens; Adam Winstock; Neil Woods; Sheila Wren Hand
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.
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.
