mental health

Childhood Development Issues and Adult Addiction Fit the Same Pattern

Behavioral-developmental challenges in childhood and addiction problems in adulthood are two sides of the same coin. Both constitute self-defeating patterns…

May 21, 2019

Women Who Use Drugs: Challenges Demand Self-Led Harm Reduction

Bree Cassell first injected heroin when she was 15 years old. Despite wanting to do so, she was so scared…

May 21, 2019

If You Care About Health Justice, Stop Clicking on “Florida Man” Stories

Who hasn’t taken a break from dreadful news cycles to have a good laugh at the screwball crime stories attributed…

May 9, 2019

Deprogramming From AA—When a Fellowship Resembles a Cult

Katherine was on the subway home from a meeting with her Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor when it hit. They had just…

May 2, 2019

New Evidence of Smoking Disparities Underlines That Tobacco Harm Reduction Is Social Justice

Americans experiencing compounded social marginalization are at greater risk of initiating use of—and not cutting use of—tobacco products, according to…

April 23, 2019

Cops Morphing Into Social Workers Is Not a Solution

All across the US, law enforcement asserts its power through its sheer visibility in a vast array of public spaces.…

April 23, 2019

Shades of Sobriety: Life Shows That Recovery Needn’t Mean Abstinence

If your goal is sobriety defined as abstaining from everything psychoactive, good luck! Virtually everyone, like it or not, undergoes…

April 22, 2019

To Address Addiction, Confront Racism in Our Health and Justice Systems

It’s widely documented that decades of punitive criminal justice and drug policies have led to the US becoming the world’s…

April 8, 2019

Yes, You Can Be Addicted to Cannabis—But There Are Sensible Ways to Avoid This

The seemingly inexorable nationwide movement to legalize marijuana has recently stalled in New Jersey and New York, at least partly…

April 3, 2019

Drug Laws Undermine Ethics for Social Workers in Child Welfare

As a 20-year-old undergraduate student who had limited familiarity with substance use beyond alcohol, the most formative aspect of my…

March 21, 2019