drugs

What "Crackhead" Really Meant in 1980s America

by Donovan X. Ramsey

The memories of politicians and police have been allowed to dominate our understanding of the emergence of crack cocaine in the 1980s. A new book seeks to elevate the voices of urban Black Americans and others who experienced it directly and still live with its effects.

The Real Story Behind "Cocaine Bear"

The real story of "Pablo Escobear" involves far less action by the bear and much more by a ring of smugglers during the cocaine boom of the 1980s. 

Problems with Legal Marijuana will Demand Coherent Policy Response

by Peter Thilly

The state-by-state variation in marijuana laws means that legalization has the potential to create inequalities and subject some users to state violence. The history of opium in China shows the need for coherent overarching policies. 

Another 90's Trend is Back: DARE

by Rebecca Kavanagh

The brainchild of LAPD Chief Darryl Gates, DARE wasn't good at steering kids away from drugs. But it was good at bringing police into schools and encouraging kids to report anyone using drugs to the cops. 

New Book Questions Value of Established Treatment Methods in Age of Fentanyl

Amy C. Sullivan tells the history of the "Minnesota Model" of inpatient treatment followed by sponsorship and 12-step recovery, but says the model isn't working for the opioid epidemic and a pragmatic "harm reduction" approach is needed. 

Drug Prohibition and the Political Roots of Cartel Violence in Mexico

by Benjamin T. Smith

Violence is not so much in the DNA of the drug trade as the DNA of drug prohibition. And until both American and Mexican police forces stop treating it like a war, the violence won’t stop.

Fifty Years Since the War on Drugs

"This summer marks 50 years since the war on drugs began under President Richard Nixon. But the opioid overdose epidemic continues to ravage the country, and incarceration—especially of Black people—has skyrocketed over the past 5 decades." 

Prof. David Courtwright Recounts History of Opioid Epidemics in Trial against Makers, Distributors

A historian of past drug epidemics and narcotics regulation is an expert witness for New York State in a case against opioid manufacturers, who relaxed the regulatory standards put up in response to opioid addiction in the 19th century. 

Throughline: The United States vs. Billie Holiday (audio)

Billie Holliday's legal problems over drugs were made more difficult by her refusal to stop performing the anti-lynching song "Strange Fruit." 

“Entrepreneurial Greed” — A Review Of Crack: Rock Cocaine, Street Capitalism, And The Decade Of Greed

David Farber's book examines the entrepreneurial culture of crack cocaine and how the drug trade meshed with Reagan-era changes in urban political economy.

A History of Inconvenient Allies and Convenient Enemies

by Alexander Aviña

The history of American alliances abroad doesn't make sense as a drug control strategy, but is consistent with a strategy of invoking the war on drugs to punish governments that resist U.S. domination.

History and the Opioid Crisis

by Jeremy Milloy

In the 1970s, just as now, people living with and recovering from substance use disorders faced prejudice and mistreatment at the hiring stage and in the workplace itself.

How Methamphetamine Became a Key Part of Nazi Military Strategy

by Peter Andreas

As Norman Ohler shows in Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany, while other drugs were banned or discouraged, methamphetamine was touted as a miracle product when it appeared on the market in the late 1930s.

Why abruptly abandoning the drug war is a bad idea for Mexico

by Aileen Teague

Long-term economic initiatives are good, but a power vacuum will make things more violent in the short term.

The Opioid Epidemic as Metaphor

by Faith Bennett

As cinematic portrayals of opioid use and abuse tend to be this sensational, commonplace opioid usage almost feels as if it doesn’t fit into this pattern of addiction at all. 

The return of ‘reefer madness’

by Emily Dufton and Lucas Richert

Both supporters and opponents of legalization are quick to use sensationalism to prove their points, stunting the pursuit of real research needed to determine cannabis’ social effects.

Colombia's former president linked to Medellín drug cartel

A Colombian senator told the U.S. Embassy in 1993 that the founders of the Medellín drug cartel “financed” the election campaign of then-senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez, according to documents posted by the National Security Archive.

The Opioid Addiction Epidemic Is an 8 on the Richter Scale

by David T. Courtwright

Here’s how we got here and why this historian is guardedly optimistic.

Why Have Military Historians Ignored Drug Use in the Military?

by Lukasz Kamienski

It’s a serious oversight, and there are disturbing reasons for it.

Obama's Lost War on Drugs

by Jeremy Kuzmarov

Rather than relying on our hopeless forty-fourth president and an even more hopeless Republican-controlled Congress, citizen groups need to mobilize together to oppose the waste of their hard earned taxpayer dollars in the War on Drugs.