pain

Given Few Options for Chronic Pain, Prisoners Are Making Safer Moonshine

Moonshine, hooch, julep, toilet wine, clear—whatever they call it, over the past 30 years Tennessee’s prison bootleggers have improved their…

November 12, 2024

National Cancer Institute Surveys Pain Patients’ Cannabis, Polysubstance Use

A federal government agency has published a wide-ranging series of scientific reports on marijuana and cancer as part of an…

September 23, 2024

BC Lawsuit Highlights Harms of Opioid Prescribing Crackdown

A lawsuit in British Columbia details how a regulatory body is allegedly “harassing” doctors into taking pain patients off their…

July 19, 2024

My Old Doctor Gave Me Methadone. Being Forced Into a Clinic Ruined It.

I lost my leg in a car accident when I was 15. A little while after, I started having pain…

July 9, 2024

A Close Look at Denial of Pain Meds to People Who Use Drugs

For people who use drugs, accessing prescription pain medication when needed can be a severe challenge. A new paper digs…

April 18, 2024

They Call Me a Drug Seeker. Here’s What Their Opioid Policies Did to Me.

My life changed in a matter of seconds, when in 2010 I sustained a serious spinal injury in a tree-cutting…

February 27, 2023

The State of Research on Cannabis as an Opioid “Exit Drug”

It’s legal for adult use in 19 states, two territories and DC, and for medical use in 37 states, four…

September 29, 2022

Win for Pain Patients as SCOTUS Cuts DEA’s Power to Persecute Prescribers

On June 27, the United States Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the government cannot rightfully prosecute prescribers for violating the…

June 28, 2022

US Drug Czar Acknowledges the Medical Value of Marijuana

On June 27, the White House "drug czar" recognized the therapeutic potential of marijuana in pain treatment, and said that…

June 28, 2022

The Ways We “Monsterize” Drug Use, Pain and People

[This article is an adapted excerpt from On Opium: Pain, Pleasure, and Other Matters of Substance, which was published in…

November 30, 2021