Trump Is Still Claiming He Saves '25,000 American Lives' When He Blows Up a Suspected Drug Boat
So far, by the president's reckoning, he has prevented 650,000 U.S. drug deaths—eight times the number recorded last year.
Drugs
Hegseth Mulls Releasing a Video That Illustrates the Brutality of Trump's Murderous Anti-Drug Strategy
The footage shows what happened to the survivors of the September 2 attack that inaugurated the president's deadly campaign against suspected drug boats.
Philip Hamburger on "The Importance of Granting Cert in Canna Provisions v. Bondi"
Columbia Prof. Philip Hamburger urges the Supreme Court to hear this caseand take the opportunity to overturn Gonzales v. Raich.
The 'Threat' That Supposedly Justified Killing 2 Boat Attack Survivors Was Entirely Speculative
The commander who ordered a second missile strike worried that the helpless men he killed might be able to salvage cocaine from the smoldering wreck.
The Supreme Court Should Hear Case Seeking to Overturn Gonzales v. Raich
Raich is one of the Court's worst federalism decisions, holding that Congress's power to regulate interstate commerce allows it to ban possession of marijuana that never crossed state lines, and was never sold in any market.
They Built a Hemp Business in Good Faith but Washington Is About To Crush It
A new THC limit buried in the funding bill threatens to wipe out nearly the entire hemp market, while restrictive state laws are already choking small producers.
Trump Pardoned Gobble and Waddle. He Should Pardon More Deserving People, Too.
The president loves freeing people. His controversial clemency grants should not obscure the fact that the pardon power is incredibly important.
Psychoactive Hemp Products Will Be Federally Prohibited in a Year Unless Congress Intervenes
A spending bill approved as part of the package that ended the federal shutdown aims to close a loophole that gave birth to $28 billion industry.
A Senate-Approved Bill Would Ban the Hemp-Derived THC Products That Congress Legalized in 2018
The appropriations bill, which the House is considering, would wipe out an industry that offers alternatives to cannabis consumers in states that still prohibit recreational marijuana use.
Britain and Colombia Cut Off U.S. Intelligence Access Over Caribbean Boat Bombings
The two U.S. allies were OK with helping arrest suspected drug smugglers, but not with helping kill them.
There's More Than One Way To Get Sober
Author Katie Herzog examines new approaches to treating addiction, the cultural obsession with moralizing sobriety, and why she believes freedom means choosing how to heal.
The Perils of Viewing Psilocybin Strictly As a Psychiatric Medication
The most common uses of "magic mushrooms" will never gain FDA approval.
Veterans Are Suffering Because of Government Red Tape
Filmmaker Jon Shenk and former Navy SEAL Marcus Capone discuss how psychedelics are helping veterans recover from war trauma.
What Does Fentanyl Have to Do With Alleged Drug Boats 2,600 Miles Away? Absolutely Nothing.
President Trump’s pretextual claim that fentanyl carrying drug boats in the Caribbean are an existential threat to Americans doesn’t pass muster.
They Face $1 Million in Fines—for Someone Else's Code Violations
Humboldt County, California's sketchy code enforcement scheme piles ruinous fines on innocent people and sets them up to lose.
How Opioid Settlement Money Turned Into a $600K Party Fund
Cities and states promised to use opioid settlement money to fight addiction. Instead, they’re spending it on concerts, police cars, and political perks.
According to Trump, He Has Already Saved 350,000 Lives by Murdering Suspected Drug Smugglers
There are several problems with the president's math, which suggests he has accomplished an impossible feat.
Trump, an Avowed Second Amendment Champion, Defends a Gun Ban With 'No Historical Justification'
His administration is urging the Supreme Court to uphold a prosecution for violating a federal law that bars illegal drug users from owning firearms.
Is Oregon Proof That Drug Decriminalization Will Fail?
The Drug Policy Institute's Kevin Sabet debates Reason's Zach Weissmueller.
Trump Dares Congress To Take Its War Powers Seriously in Venezuela
The president bet that no one would stop him from land attacks in Venezuela. And Congress hasn’t given him any reason to think otherwise.
Singapore Keeps Hanging Low-Level Drug Couriers, But It Can't Execute Its Way to a Drug-Free Society
The Singaporean government hanged Pannir Selvam this month, the 10th convict to be executed in 2025 for nonviolent narcotics violations.
SCOTUS Will Consider the Constitutionality of the Federal Ban on Gun Possession by Illegal Drug Users
The law applies to millions of Americans who pose no plausible threat to public safety, including cannabis consumers in states that have legalized marijuana.
Did the U.S. Just Kill a Random Fisherman?
Plus: Karl Marxing my neighborhood, No Kings, the limits of tariff revenue, and more...
Trump Erroneously Thinks Killing Suspected Smugglers Is the Key to Winning the Drug War
Until now, the president concedes, interdiction has been "totally ineffective." Blowing up drug boats won't change that reality.
We're Not Talking About It
Plus: Law and order in Philly, SCOTUS audience, Ackman drops some dough, and more...
Terence McKenna, the Would-Be Jesus of Psychedelics
A new biography explores the life and ideas of the man who founded the first primitive religion of the future.
Tennessee Alcohol Wholesalers Are Grabbing Control of the State's Hemp Market
A new law hands hemp distribution to the same powerful middlemen who dominate liquor sales and block out-of-state suppliers.
How Oregon's Drug Experiment Backfired
The lesson isn’t that decriminalization can’t work. It’s that Portland-style governance is broken.
Susannah Cahalan on the Psychedelic Pioneer Rosemary Woodruff Leary
"She was a behind-the-scenes character who was propping up [Timothy] Leary," says the author of The Acid Queen.
Kamala Harris Slams Trump for Pardoning 'the Fentanyl Dealer Ross Ulbricht'
In her new book, 107 Days, the former vice president reminds us that she is ever the prosecutor.
Cannabis Isn't the Cure for Chronic Pain
Flawed research methods are misleading patients and might embolden prohibitionists. Marijuana has promise in treating certain sorts of discomfort, but some conditions still require powerful narcotics.
Americans Like Drugs. Killing Drug Traffickers Won't Change That.
Most U.S. drug traffickers are Americans, but the president is ordering extrajudicial maritime killings while ignoring the domestic demand that drives the market.
Psychedelics Are Not Just for Hippies and Tech Bros
Author Joe Dolce explains how psychedelics are moving from counterculture to mainstream, with new science, shifting laws, and surprising therapies that promise to change how we treat addiction, anxiety, and self-discovery.
How Weed Surveillance Drones Destroyed the Lives of These Californians
California tried to use drones to find illegal marijuana operations, but they found building code violations instead.
Advocates of MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Complain that 'the FDA Moved the Goalposts'
The agency's puzzling concerns about the Lykos Therapeutics drug application
Trump's Drug Boat Drone Strike Shows How 'Terrorism' Makes Everyone Killable
The logic of the war on terror means infinitely expandable government power.
Trump Orders Strike on Suspected Venezuelan Gang Boat in Caribbean
The attack follows the largest U.S. military buildup in Latin America since 1989, as Washington escalates its campaign against cartels tied to Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
The 10th Circuit Agrees That Prosecuting Cannabis Consumers for Gun Possession May Be Unconstitutional
The appeals court rejected most of the arguments in favor of that policy, saying "the government must show non-intoxicated marijuana users pose a risk of future danger."
How Elite Special Operations Troops Created a Drug Cartel
A bizarre criminal conspiracy in the ranks of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg
From Terror Sanctions to Military Strikes? Trump's Cartel Policy Sidesteps Congress
Federal terrorist lists were not supposed to be an open-ended war authorization. But it sure looks like it’s being used as one.
Hiking Tariffs on Canada, Trump Demands 'Adequate Steps' To Achieve an Impossible Drug War Goal
Canada accounts for a tiny percentage of fentanyl smuggling, which cannot be stopped by trying harder.
Religious Exemption Claim by Nonprofit Providing Supervised Illegal Drug Use Can Go Forward
The Third Circuit held that such organizations may raise religious exemption claims, though it declined to decide (at this stage of the litigation) whether the claim would prevail on the facts of this case.
A Beatnik Tourist in Ayahuasca Country
William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg's trip reports form one of the most entertaining books in the Beat canon.
Society for the Rule of Law Webinar on "Tariffs and the Rule of Law"
I participated along with Andrew Morris of the New Civil Liberties Alliance.
Hunter Biden Walks Free While This Iowa Man Serves 4 Years for the Same 'Crime'
The contrast between the two cases illustrates the haphazard impact of an arbitrary, constitutionally dubious gun law.
Although Meth Is Irresistible, The New York Times Says, Addicts Often Prefer Small Cash Rewards
The success of "contingency management" belies the notion that addiction is an uncontrollable disease caused by a drug's impact on dopamine levels.
