Helen is Filter‘s senior editor and a multimedia journalist. She is on the methadone, vaping and nicotine train. Helen 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.
Clockwork Orange-like images show a sweating, terrified young man in a dark laboratory with a black metal contraption on his…
When it comes to methadone treatment for opioid use disorder, Representative Erin Houchin, a Trump-supporting Republican from Indiana, wants to…
Oklahoma has just begun allowing prisoners to purchase safer nicotine products—vapes and pouches—at commissary. Some jails already permitted this, as…
Given what the methadone clinic system subjects them to, is it really a surprise that people who take the medication…
A new National Methadone Access and Quality Commission has been created by the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE). It…
The speeches at the press conference in Harlem were a distillation of stigmatizing ideas about methadone, clinics and patients that…
Adolescent drug use often triggers moral panics, fear-mongering and the passage of draconian laws to “keep the kids safe” by…
One of the many controversies around vaping nicotine is the impact on the enviroment—particularly of disposable, single-use vapes. When this…
Shuffle is that rare documentary about drug use and rehab that doesn’t offer a pastel, happily-ever-after ending and doesn’t engage…
The methadone clinic cartel is increasingly turning to technology in order to stay in control and expand its reach. Opioid…