Helen Redmond

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.

With New Final Methadone Rule, SAMHSA Isn’t Coming to Save Us

People on methadone in the United States have been thrown under the bus yet again amid the continuing devastation of…

February 13, 2024

Watch: Mandela Asked This Harm Reductionist, “How Can I Be Helpful?”

Dr. Kgosi Letlape has been a passionate and relentless activist on the side of “the underdog,” as he puts it,…

January 31, 2024

Pop-up Overdose Prevention Tent an Act of Defiance and Love

On International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31, in an act of civil disobedience, a small group of San Francisco…

December 14, 2023

Rep. Norcross Admits His Methadone Bill Isn’t Enough. We Should, Too.

It was the weirdest thing. Representative Donald Norcross (D, NJ) agreed with me that his Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act…

November 20, 2023

Watch: “Utter Rubbish”—Powerhouse Vape Activist Demands Voice

Judy Gibson is a pistol—one of the fiercest, most unapologetic tobacco harm reduction advocates you’ll ever meet. I interviewed her…

October 31, 2023

Watch: Stigma Hampers Recruitment for Nicotine Research

Dr. Paul Newhouse has been studying nicotine for three decades, but it’s only in the last few years that he’s…

October 16, 2023

Big Vape: Netflix Docuseries Flips the Narrative on Juul

I was prepared to hate-watch the new Netflix limited docuseries, Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul, directed by…

October 5, 2023

Watch: Exploring the Overlooked Benefits of Nicotine

Dr. Paul Newhouse has been researching nicotine for over 30 years. He’s been doing this since long before nicotine became…

September 29, 2023

Afghanistan’s Poppy Ban May Fail. Its Success Could Bring Global Crisis.

For decades, the war-torn country of Afghanistan has been the world’s largest producer of illicit opiates (opium, heroin and morphine).…

August 30, 2023

Watch: Former Methadone Clinic Director Slams Culture of Cruelty

One of the most intriguing emails I have ever received hit my inbox in 2021. This, in part, is how…

August 7, 2023