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.

DOJ Reclassifies Medical Marijuana as Schedule III, Sets New Hearing Date

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has signed an order moving state-licensed medical marijuana products from Schedule I to Schedule III…

April 23, 2026

Historic Drop in Overdose Deaths Has Slowed by More Than Half Since 2024

On April 15, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published its most recent monthly provisional drug overdose death count,…

April 16, 2026

Illinois Bill Would Put Long-Acting OUD Meds in Prisons, Sort Of

Illinois lawmakers are considering a proposal to pilot long-acting injectable medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) within the state prison…

April 14, 2026

HHS Tries Again to Sell Congress on Administration for a Healthy America

In the year since Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his plan to consolidate…

April 13, 2026

State Bills to Regulate Kratom Advance, Alongside Ones to Ban It

Nine months after Rhode Island passed a law regulating the sale of kratom, the partial opioid agonist that has divided…

April 10, 2026

White House Budget: No Funds for Housing, Some for Reopening Alcatraz

President Donald Trump has released his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2027, which outlines sweeping cuts to essentially everything that…

April 9, 2026

CDC and ONDCP Issue Health Alert for Medetomidine, an Unusual Move

On April 6 the White House announced a Health Alert Network (HAN) advisory warning about the effects of medetomidine, an…

April 7, 2026

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