drugs

Tax Weed, Save the Homeless

Hamilton Nolan · 07/13/16 08:30AM

Life is not all about sitting around “getting high” and daydreaming about saving the world and having hot sex at the same time. Life is about tax policy—that’s where the action is.

Canada to Legalize It

Hamilton Nolan · 04/20/16 04:20PM

Chilly but civilized American neighbor Canada announced today that it plans to legalize weed by this time next year.

The Myth of the Addictive Personality

Maia Szalavitz · 04/05/16 02:30PM

When people think of someone with an “addictive personality,” the image typically isn’t a pretty one. “When is an addict lying?” goes a joke told by addiction counselors: the snide answer is “when his lips are moving.” Media portrayals of addiction tend to depict people with addictions as “fiends” or “demons” whose debauchery is driven by a ravenous hedonism, not a human or understandable search for safety and comfort. Consequently, the “addictive personality” is seen as a bad one: weak, unreliable, selfish, and out of control.

ISIS Releases Good Anti-ISIS Propaganda Image

Sam Biddle · 03/28/16 03:32PM

The Islamic State slaughters innocents with abandon, destroys precious antiquities, and starts frivolous beefs on Twitter. And yet it still manages to ensnare youths from around the world—but has it gone too far now?

Study Finds “Bath Salts” in About Half of the “Molly” At the Club

Rich Juzwiak · 02/22/16 05:00PM

A recently released study by NYU confirms something that should have been obvious to anyone whose brain hasn’t yet jumped ship waving a white flag: You shouldn’t trust that whatever white, powdery substance you think you’re putting in your body to actually be that substance. A recently released NYU study determined that 40 percent of people who thought they were popping molly—the supposed pure form of ecstasy’s main ingredient, MDMA—actually had unwittingly ingested synthetic cathinones, the active ingredients in bath salts, “and/or” other psychoactive substances new on the market, “intended to mimic the effects of traditional illegal drugs.”

Even Sarah Palin Knows "Just Say No" Was Never Going to Work

Rich Juzwiak · 02/15/16 03:45PM

Last night, the National Geographic Channel kicked off its six-episode series Generation X, an uncommonly sharp talking-head recap show that explores various cultural events and phenomena that helped shape the generation after the Baby Boomers. The War on Drugs, specifically how it targeted crack in the ‘80s and was made tangible in the “Just Say No” campaign, was among the topics on last night’s premiere. The segment featured commentary from Senator Cory Booker, journalist Alison Stewart, and none other than Sarah Palin, who pointed out the impracticality of the campaign spearheaded by Nancy Reagan:

Drug Companies Now Have New Drugs to Treat the Side Effects of the Drugs They're Selling You

Marina Galperina · 02/11/16 04:33PM

Poop! It’s funny! So when White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked to comment on a Super Bowl opioid-induced constipation “awareness” ad, paid for by the pharmaceutical companies which spent hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire a new constipation drug for painkiller users, soft giggles rippled through the press pit. Drug companies profiting off drug users who can’t poop! Poop is funny, but this is bad. The White House is on it! Sort of.