Defending the Summary Execution of Suspected Drug Smugglers, Trump Declares an 'Armed Conflict'
The president thinks he can transform murder into self-defense by executive fiat.
War on Drugs
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.
Donald Trump Is Not a Peace President
Trump struggles to articulate any foreign policy view with much coherence, and has a fragile ego that makes world conflicts all about him.
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.
Trump Has a Habit of Asserting Broad, Unreviewable Authority
Whether he is waging the drug war, imposing tariffs, deporting alleged gang members, or fighting crime, the president thinks he can do "anything I want to do."
Why Banning Drugs and Guns Never Works
Reason’s Jacob Sullum traces the shared failures of drug prohibition and gun laws, showing how both undermine civil liberties, racial justice, and commonsense safety.
Another Military Strike on a Speedboat Confirms Trump's Policy of Murdering Suspected Drug Smugglers
The president's new approach to drug law enforcement represents a stark departure from military norms and criminal justice principles.
Trump Calls His Drone Strike on an Alleged Drug Boat 'Self-Defense.' It Looks More Like Murder.
Equating drug trafficking with armed aggression, the president asserts the authority to kill anyone he perceives as a threat to "our most vital national interests."
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 Unjust and Illegal Killing of 11 Venezuelans
Killing suspected drug traffickers is both unjust and illegal. And it could be the start of an effort to turn the already awful War on Drugs into something more like a real war, thereby making it even worse.
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.
'We're Going In'
Plus: Bombing "narco-terrorists" in the Caribbean, American manufacturing shrinks for the sixth consecutive month, Massie wants the Epstein files, and more...
'Botched' Drug Raids Show How Prohibition Invites Senseless Violence
The war on drugs authorizes police conduct that otherwise would be readily recognized as criminal.
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."
The Man in the Red Beret: What Curtis Sliwa Brings to New York's Wild Mayoral Race
The Guardian Angels founder battles Zohran Mamdani for the anti-establishment vote while he fights Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo for the anti-socialist vote.
Compensation for Legal Fees Is a Critical Protection Against Civil Forfeiture Abuses
A recent federal appeals court decision underlines the importance of that safeguard.
The 11th Circuit Revives a Constitutional Challenge to the Federal Law That Disarms Medical Marijuana Patients
The appeals court concluded that the government had failed to show that policy is consistent with "this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation."
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.
Baseball, and the Vanishing Art of Forgiveness
Can this weekend's Hall of Fame induction of Dick Allen and Dave Parker teach us a lesson about politics?
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.
5 Years After Breonna Taylor Was Killed, 1 Officer Gets 33 Months
Brett Hankison was convicted of violating Breonna Taylor’s Fourth Amendment rights during a fatal no-knock police raid.
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.
The Department of Homeland Security Says Trump's Immigration Enforcers Are on a Mission From God
A DHS video lionizing Customs and Border Protection quotes the Bible and includes a song promising that "God's gonna cut you down."
The Real Opioid Crisis Isn't Prescriptions—It's Prohibition
West Virginia's overdose data prove it: Officials misunderstood the problem, and patients paid the price.
Legalize All Drugs! Reason Versus City Journal
City Journal's Rafael Mangual and Charles Fain Lehman debate Reason's Billy Binion and Jacob Sullum on legalizing all drugs.
Using the National Guard in DEA Raids Is the Worst Kind of Drug War Mission Creep
The deployment of National Guard soldiers on a DEA drug raid is a serious test of whether the Posse Comitatus Act means something or not.
How LSD Helped Launch a Radical Libertarian Counterculture
Drug Smuggler. Fugitive. Icon. Meet the Acid Queen.
Does Drug Use Lead to Addiction, or Are Some Brains More Prone To Use Drugs?
Researchers argue that "we may need to reevaluate the causal assumptions that underlie brain disease models of addiction."
Review: A Doctor Changes His Mind About Opioid Prescriptions
In Greed to Do Good, a former CDC physician calls the agency's war on opioids a disaster.
Utah Passed a Religious Freedom Law. Then Cops Went After This Psychedelic Church.
A religious group using psilocybin mushrooms in ceremonies "put the State of Utah's commitment to religious freedom to the test," a federal judge wrote.
Federal Courts Shrug at Potentially Lethal Wrong-Door Raids
Cops should not be free to forgo the modicum of care required to make sure they’re in the right place.
How Freedom Lovers Can Reckon with Addicts and Addiction
A new book looks at addiction through the lens of choice and responsibility.
Review: Schedule I Is a Multiplayer Co-op Black Market Econ Simulator
A spiritual successor to the Drug Wars game that proliferated on high school graphing calculators
This Small Business Is in Limbo As Owner Sues To Stop Trump's Tariffs
Next week could be a pivotal one, as a federal appeals court could decide whether to restore an injunction against Trump's tariffs.
Everything Got Worse During COVID
By almost every measure, America during the pandemic was a more dangerous, deadly, and dysfunctional place.
