treatment

SAMHSA Rule-Change Strips SUD Patients’ Privacy, Invites Police Intrusion

The long-awaited final rule revising 42 CFR Part 2—the confidentiality regulation applying to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment records—is out. …

July 16, 2020

Oklahoma Reservation Ruling Is an Opening for Harm Reduction

Hardline Oklahoma prosecutors have received bad news about their capacity to force people who use drugs into “therapeutic” courts. That…

July 13, 2020

Kentucky Challenge to “Casey’s Law” Strikes Against Involuntary Commitment

One of the nation’s oldest involuntary commitment laws designed specifically to target people who use drugs is facing a court…

July 9, 2020

Joe Biden’s Unwelcome Plan to Expand Coerced Treatment and Drug Courts

Presumed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden released his “Plan for Black America” on May 4, which discussed some of the…

May 7, 2020

COVID-19 Is Especially Devastating for Black and Brown Americans

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its accompanying economic downturn is disproportionately affecting Black and Brown people in the US…

March 26, 2020

Does a “Dialectical Abstinence” Program Qualify as Harm Reduction?

I first heard the term “dialectical abstinence” in the summer of 2019, several weeks into an intensive outpatient program (IoP)…

February 20, 2020

A San Francisco Man Is Currently in Jail for Eating a Cookie in Rehab

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Michael Begert is probably feeling lucky that he is not facing reelection for another five…

December 9, 2019

My Personal Journey Into Alcohol Harm Reduction

I first realized I had a problem with drinking when I was a year out of college. I was 21…

November 18, 2019

Witnessed Urine Screens in Drug Treatment: Humiliating and Harmful

My heart drummed in time to my racing thoughts, which repeated an increasingly urgent command. Just. Fucking. Pee. But instead…

October 28, 2019

Why the Curious Story of William S. Burroughs’ Heroin “Cure” Still Matters

At the time I took the apomorphine cure I had no claims to call myself a writer and my creativity…

October 8, 2019