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.

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

Pressured by Fentanyl Deaths, County Coroner Laws Evolve in Weird Ways

Legislators in Indiana have unanimously advanced a bill that proposes an unusual solution to the shortage of qualified coroners to…

February 25, 2026

Illinois HOPE Act Would “Codify Harm Reduction” and Housing-First

Illinois is considering a wide-ranging harm reduction bill that advocates believe may have traction with legislators. If enacted, the Holistic…

February 24, 2026

FDA Drops Drug-Approval Standard From Two Controlled Trials to One

The Food and Drug Administration will no longer expect pharmaceutical manufacturers to submit two pivotal trials in applications for new…

February 23, 2026

Audit: Widespread Failures in Federal Prisons’ Use of Halfway House System

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is not only continuing to incarcerate people past the point when they should have…

February 18, 2026

New OPC Bill in Connecticut, Where Gov. Lamont Wanted to “Wait and See”

Connecticut senators have introduced a bill to authorize an overdose prevention center (OPC) pilot project. SB 195 was proposed February…

February 17, 2026

NM, Facing Rising Deaths, Calls for Overdose Prevention Center Study

On February 9, New Mexico state senators will discuss a proposal to study the feasibility of overdose prevention centers (OPC).…

February 9, 2026

TrumpRx Launches, Offering Drug Discounts as Long as You Pay Cash

On February 5 President Donald Trump launched TrumpRx.gov, a direct-to-consumer website listing pharmaceutical medications at reduced prices that the administration…

February 6, 2026