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.

Massachusetts Post-Menthols Ban: Mixed Smoking Impacts, More Policing

Massachusetts is experiencing the aftershocks of menthol prohibition. In 2020, the Bay State became the first in the country to…

March 15, 2023

Evidence Is In on Vapes as Smoking Cessation. Now We Need Urgency.

In a comment published in Nature Medicine, four leading researchers marshal the evidence that vapes can be used as a…

February 23, 2023

The Tech Companies Policing Methadone Patients for Profit

Apparently, fingernails and hair create “layers of drug history.” At the Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) conference,…

February 14, 2023

Mexico’s Government Thinks Criminalization Will Stamp Out Smoking

If you thought Mexico’s drug war was only about illegal drugs like fentanyl or cocaine, you would be wrong. The…

January 20, 2023

SAMHSA’s Methadone Reforms Toothless Until We End Clinics’ Power

The COVID-19 pandemic and record overdose tolls have continued to pressure the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)…

January 12, 2023

Methadone Clinics’ Conference Felt Like Being Behind Enemy Lines

Attending the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) conference, held in Baltimore this month, felt like being…

November 23, 2022

A Long-Awaited Harm Reduction Gathering in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico was the location for the National Harm Reduction Conference from October 13-16—the first to take place since 2018.…

November 8, 2022

Make It Make Sense: The Confusing Terminology Around Safer Nicotine

Nicotine vapes contain no tobacco but are routinely called “tobacco products.” A 2019 lung disease outbreak is still known as…

October 12, 2022

A State-by-State Guide to the Cruelty of the Methadone Clinic System

A chart book of blue national maps newly compiled by Pew Charitable Trusts is a powerful visual distillation of information…

September 27, 2022

Extracting Juul Settlement Is About the Money, Not the Truth

Juul is back in the news, this time for tentatively agreeing to pay a whopping $438.5 million in a multistate…

September 13, 2022