Kastalia Medrano

Kastalia is Filter‘s deputy editor. She previously worked at half a dozen mainstream digital media outlets and would not recommend the drug coverage at any of them. For a while she was a syringe program peer worker in NYC, where she did outreach hep C testing and navigated participants through treatment. She also writes with Jon Kirkpatrick.

CBP Rolls Out Mildly Surprising Workforce Naloxone Policy

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has implemented its first internal policy covering staff access to naloxone. While it revolves entirely…

November 7, 2024

FDA Reports Largest-Ever Seizure of Unregulated Nicotine Vapes

On October 22, the Food and Drug Administration announced what appears to be the United States government's largest seizure of…

October 24, 2024

Feds Say Vapes, and Not Abstinence, Research Priority for Smoking Harms

In a call for innovation to reduce the public health harms of smoking, the National Institutes of Health and the…

October 16, 2024

SAMHSA-Backed Toolkit Introduces Harm Reduction to Families, Caregivers

The National Family Support Technical Assistance Center (NFSTAC) has curated a “Family & Caregiver Toolkit,” aimed at those whose children…

October 8, 2024

Harris Visits Border, Confirms Plan to Arrest Our Way Out of Overdose Crisis

In her first visit to the United States-Mexico border since 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris met with Customs and Border…

September 30, 2024

The Prison Mail Bans Aren’t About Fentanyl. They’re About Understaffing.

On September 19, Senator Robert Casey (D-PA) introduced legislation that would require the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to begin…

September 23, 2024

Overdose Deaths Suddenly Dropped, Per Data That’s Always Been Kinda Iffy

Between April 2023 and April 2024, drug-related deaths across the country appear to have fallen more than 10 percent. Provisional…

September 19, 2024

VT Overdose Prevention Centers to Allow Smoking Areas, Mobile Units

Vermont has unveiled operating guidelines for overdose prevention centers (OPC), which will include smoking consumption areas and potentially mobile sites.…

September 16, 2024

DEA Raises ADHD Med Production Quotas. It Could Just Fix the Shortage.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is allowing pharmaceutical companies to produce a higher volume of Vyvanse and its generic versions. The…

September 10, 2024

Triton Case: Briefs on “Poisonous” Vape Flavors Flood Supreme Court

On September 3, attorneys general representing 19 states and the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief with the Supreme…

September 4, 2024