Media + Culture

So We’re Drinking Our Way Through the Pandemic? It’s What Drugs Are For.

People are drinking (and using marijuana) more during the pandemic. Alarms have predictably been raised, but anxiety is misdirected. RAND…

October 8, 2020

The “Date-Rape Drug” Narrative Has Been Weaponized Against GHB Users

Wait…” my therapist reacted during our weekly FaceTime session. I had just mentioned my nightly routine of throwing back a…

September 22, 2020

New York Times Breonna Taylor Piece Embraces Drug-War Narratives

Remarkably, a recent 6,000-word New York Times investigative article about Breonna Taylor doesn’t mention the War on Drugs. Not once.…

September 3, 2020

“This Is Ohio”—Economic Pain and Harm Reduction in the Rust Belt

Jack Shuler watched the overdose crisis take a heavy toll on his hometown of Newark, Ohio. It was terrible and…

September 1, 2020

Cages Don’t Always Have Bars: How “Reforms” Swelled the Carceral State

Place Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law together on a street corner in an impoverished neighborhood and they’ll see examples of…

August 25, 2020

“I Can’t Breathe”⁠—The Haunting Urgency of Juice WRLD’s Post-OD Album

Since the December 8, 2019 fatal overdose of Jarad Higgins—a Black rapper who went by the stage name Juice WRLD…

July 14, 2020

Pleasure, Delayed: This Juneteenth Should Include Freedom to Use Drugs

This year, Juneteenth is taking its rightful place as a more meaningful celebration of freedom than July 4 ever could…

June 19, 2020

The Paradox of an “Evidence-Based” Anti-Drug Media Campaign

The push for evidence-based drug policy is clashing head-on with a drug war rooted in fear-mongering and racism. Per a…

May 27, 2020

“The Waterboarding of Drugs!”—Hasan Minhaj Blasts “Rigged” Marijuana Industry

If the marijuana industry is consolidating among large corporations, while Black and Brown people continue to be shut out and…

May 27, 2020

“The Great” Offers a Window Into a Non-Temperance Way of Being

Netflix is currently screening The Great, a 10-part series portraying the improbable, nay astounding, story of Catherine II, Empress of…

May 26, 2020