The Pot Docs

The real aim was always making recreational use fully legal.

Outbreaks of illicit drug use have a life cycle not unlike common disease. They can start quickly, achieve a dramatic peak, then fade gradually with time. Once embedded in a society, however, use of a particular drug tends to remain at lower levels, rather than to disappear entirely.

In the case of the crack epidemic, a number of different factors contributed to its eventual end. A vigorous campaign of public education, for instance, combined with greater access to treatment, and a growing awareness in the public mind of the consequences of crack addiction, as witnessed in their peers-- all of these contributed.  That didn’t mean everyone just stopped using crack, but eventually, what had been epidemic became endemic.

A colleague asked for my opinion of the US raids on boats in the Pacific and the Caribbean, that have resulted in a number of deaths to date. Were those who were killed really narcoterrorists, as has been claimed?

That’s impossible to answer precisely,...

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A War on Who?

It struck me as a similar sort of small time, low-profile operation that would attract ordinary people hoping for a rare payday.

A War on Who?

It struck me as a similar sort of small time, low-profile operation that would attract ordinary people hoping for a rare payday.

A War with No Ending

At present, the emphasis is on interdiction, the supply side. Meanwhile, we struggle with cuts in resources for treatment and prevention – the demand side.

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“Scromiting”

It must come as a shock to someone who’s been a regular user for a while, to suddenly without warning begin experiencing violent vomiting and pain.

“Scromiting”

It must come as a shock to someone who’s been a regular user for a while, to suddenly without warning begin experiencing violent vomiting and pain.

Life in a Hot Spot

Make it a continuing effort, using strategies based in evidence, and harnessing the power of human interaction-- instead of relying on a burst of anti-drug education, however intense.

Anonymity — Out of Date?

...isn’t TikTok and influencer culture undeniably afflicted with far too much of,that same “ambition and illegitimate pride” that AA’s founders felt they must avoid?

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Is This Recovery?

...there are other folks out there like these— pretending to sobriety yet still secretly using, and hoping to avoid the sort of trouble that haunted them in the past.

Overstimulated?

I was nonetheless surprised to learn that one of the areas where use increased the most was among people in their 70s. 

Parenting Under The Influence

Children raised in such families are more likely to be exposed to violence, to initiate their own substance use at an earlier age, and to have mental health problems in childhood.

Is This Recovery?

...there are other folks out there like these— pretending to sobriety yet still secretly using, and hoping to avoid the sort of trouble that haunted them in the past.

Officers in the House

...with law enforcement agencies taking on vastly different roles, planning and practicing our response appears more important than in the past.

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A Novel Approach

...the author, who grew up in and around the region, chose to use its earnings to found Higher Ground, a home for recovering women.

A Novel Approach

...the author, who grew up in and around the region, chose to use its earnings to found Higher Ground, a home for recovering women.

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