Kastalia Medrano

Kastalia is Filter‘s deputy editor. She previously worked at half a dozen mainstream digital media outlets and does not recommend the drug war 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.

Congress Poised to Schedule Xylazine, Because Otherwise the DEA Will Do It

Three years in the making, the legislative push to place xylazine under Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act…

March 30, 2026

Illinois Overdose Prevention Center Bill Is Moving Forward Again

In Illinois, a bill to authorize an overdose prevention center (OPC) pilot is working its way through the House. HB…

March 27, 2026

Rezenopy, the 10 Mg Naloxone Nasal Spray, Enters the OD Antidote Market

Two years after its approval by the Food and Drug Administration, opioid-overdose reversal product Rezenopy is about to make its…

March 23, 2026

DEA Emergency Order Puts Novel Benzo Bromazolam in Schedule I

The Drug Enforcement Administration has temporarily placed bromazolam, an unregulated benzodiazepine, under Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. The…

March 18, 2026

Mortality Rate for LA’s Unhoused Residents Drops for the First Time

For the first time in the decade that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has been tracking mortality…

March 12, 2026

FDA Eyeing “Drug Disposal” Products, for Destroying Rx Opioids at Home

The Food and Drug Administration is asking the public to weigh in on the merits of commercial drug-disposal products, for…

March 11, 2026

CDC Identifies Specific Drugs Most Frequently Cited in Overdose Deaths

On March 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention a published a National Vital Statistics Report on the drugs most…

March 9, 2026

No, Synthetic Opioid Cychlorphine Has Not Proved Narcan “Ineffective”

A minor media frenzy has been forming around cychlorphine, a novel synthetic opioid described as the "next killer drug" taking…

March 5, 2026

DEA Permanently Bans Five Benzos, the First to Be Placed in Schedule I

On March 2, the Drug Enforcement Administration published a final rule permanently scheduling five benzodiazepines under the Controlled Substances Act.…

March 3, 2026

Oklahoma Weighs “Repeat Offender” Law for Drug Use During Pregnancy

Oklahoma is considering a bill that would increase the state’s authority to intervene when people use unregulated drugs during pregnancy,…

February 26, 2026