opioids

“Liquid Handcuffs”—A Documentary to Free Methadone

There's nothing greater than living," says Ellis (above), who takes methadone. "We all want to live." Evidence shows that methadone…

April 30, 2019

Trump Doubles Down on “Drug-Free” America and the Death Penalty

President Donald Trump's contradictory messages about his response to the opioid-involved overdose crisis were on full display during a self-congratulatory…

April 25, 2019

DEA’s “Innovative” Strategy in New Orleans Encourages Ever-Harsher Prosecutions

On April 16, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) launched its latest punishment-driven, treatment-inflected response to the opioid-involved overdose crisis in…

April 17, 2019

How Helpful—Or Harmful—Are Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs?

Before admitting new patients to his practice, Dr. Miguel Diaz checks their prescription history. Diaz, a family medicine physician with…

April 9, 2019

Legal Syringe Programs Could Finally Be Arriving in Iowa

In Iowa City, Ben, a 26-year-old who has been using heroin for years, met the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition while…

March 27, 2019

Beyond Purdue: Our Deadly Unlearned Lessons From the Overdose Crisis

There is a profound moment in the film And The Band Played On, about the early days of the US…

March 27, 2019

Mixed Outcomes and Ethical Questions at New York’s “Opioid Courts”

Early one morning in January 2018, Bruce Gramiack Jr. awoke to find his cellmate's "lifeless body on the floor" at…

March 26, 2019

Inside Vancouver’s Drug User Union

The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) is a member-driven organization that organizes to improve the lives of people…

March 19, 2019

Dietary Supplement? Or Drug? The Kratom Regulation Debate

Is kratom a plant (Mitragyna speciosa)—originating in Southeast Asia and long used in traditional medicines for the mild opioid-like and…

March 12, 2019

A “Competence Vacuum” in Trump’s Opioid Response Team

In January, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) outlined its strategy "to address, head on, the current opioid crisis"—yet they…

March 8, 2019