child welfare

Pregnancy in Withdrawal: Methadone Clinic Tore My Family Apart

In the endless hallway of the NICU, nurses shuffled from door to door. Yellow-toned ceiling lights flickered. My grandmother kept…

December 7, 2023

“Can You Pee for Me?” A Childhood Under the Methadone Clinic System

“Hey buddy, wake up.” My father gently gripped my shoulders and shook me back and forth. I tucked my face…

July 24, 2023

Arizona May Enact 35-Year Mandatory Minimum for “Drug Trafficking Homicide” of Kids

A kid dying of an opioid-involved overdose is a tragedy. Thankfully, it is comparatively rare, if increasing, according to an…

February 14, 2022

NYC Raises Value of Rental Assistance Vouchers, Expands Eligibility

With an end to the city’s eviction moratorium looming in September, the New York City Council passed a hotly debated…

June 1, 2021

Forced, Rapid Adoptions Are a Weapon of the Drug War

“I hate myself.” The words slipped out of my youngest child’s mouth with a casual levity. Only 5 years old,…

December 21, 2020

The Waiting Game: A Powerlessness That’s Long Harmed Drug Users

As our nation wakes up anxiety-ridden, collectively uncertain of whether we’ve been delivered from political catastrophe, many of us who…

November 4, 2020

How Will You Talk to Your Kids About Drug Safety?

If you are a parent, or hope to be someday, you’ve likely considered how you will teach your children about…

October 6, 2020

“The Civil Death Penalty”—My Motherhood Is Legally Terminated

It’s afternoon on the Monday after the Fourth of July. My daughters, ages five and six, sit perched on the…

July 13, 2020

Court Reins In Social Workers’ Power in Drug-War Child Removals

Social workers are overlooked actors in the drug war, separating parents who use drugs from their children, often regardless of…

April 2, 2020

Child Reunification May Soon Be Impossible for Pregnant Drug Users in North Carolina

North Carolina state representatives have approved a bill that would make it easier for courts to keep families permanently separated…

February 5, 2020