California Lawmakers Approve Drug Injection Sites for Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco
Supervised facilities aim to make a dent in the dramatic increase in overdose deaths.
Harm Reduction
The FDA Perversely Seeks To Make Both Cigarettes and Harm-Reducing Alternatives Less Appealing
The agency’s policies would boost the black market and smoking-related deaths.
A Record Number of Drug-Related Deaths Shows the Drug War Is Remarkably Effective at Killing People
According to new CDC numbers, the death toll rose 15 percent last year after jumping 30 percent in 2020.
The FDA Uses Its New Authority To Close Off the Last Remaining Legal Option for Vapers Who Like Flavor Variety
In a move that is likely to undermine public health, the agency warns that products containing synthetic nicotine "will be subject to FDA enforcement."
The FDA's Rejection of a Major Vaping Brand Shows It Is Arbitrarily Applying a Nebulous Legal Standard
The agency's obsession with adolescent vaping is driving decisions that undermine public health.
Why Can't the CDC Tell the Truth About Smoking and Vaping by Teenagers?
The agency ignores downward trends in both kinds of nicotine use and obscures the huge difference in the hazards they pose.
Congress Seems Poised To Let the FDA Ban E-Cigarettes Containing Synthetic Nicotine
A spending bill provision would redefine "tobacco products" to include products that have nothing to do with tobacco.
If Chuck Schumer Supports Marijuana Legalization, Why Did He Nix a Bill That Would Have Helped Pot Businesses Use Banks?
Stranger still, the leading drug policy reform organization supported Schumer's obstruction.
A New Study Finds That Smokers With No Plans To Quit Are Much More Likely To Stop Smoking If They Vape Every Day
The findings reinforce the case for nicotine vaping products as a harm-reducing alternative to cigarettes.
Senate Democrats Nix a Regressive, Unhealthy Vaping Tax Endorsed by the House
The perverse provision would have discouraged smokers from switching to a far less hazardous source of nicotine.
Feds Pledge $30 Million To Fund Drug Harm Reduction Programs
Less punitive responses to drug addiction are good, but what about people still stuck in federal prison?
New York City Is Funding America's First Official Safe Injection Site for Drug Users
As the U.S. reaches new terrible milestones in overdose deaths, a harm reduction system that has proven itself elsewhere finally launches where it’s needed most.
If Less Vaping Means More Smoking, That Won't Be a Public Health Victory
Cigarette sales rose last year for the first time in two decades, while a survey of high school seniors found they were vaping less but smoking more.
FDA Approves an E-Cigarette for the First Time but Still Seems Bent on Banning the Flavors Former Smokers Overwhelmingly Prefer
If teenagers like an e-liquid flavor, the agency seems to think, adults should not be allowed to buy it.
The FDA Is Determined To Ignore the Decline in Underage Vaping Because It Weakens the Case for New Restrictions
The agency seems inclined to ban the vaping products that former smokers overwhelmingly prefer because teenagers also like them.
This Anti-Vaping Congressman Insists 'There's Simply No Evidence' That E-Cigarettes Help Smokers Quit
Although Raja Krishnamoorthi says "adults can do what they want," he is determined not to let them.
Bureaucrats and Politicians Seem Determined To Cripple a Lifesaving Alternative to Smoking
E-cigarette regulations and taxes threaten an industry that could prevent millions of premature deaths.
Since the FDA Has Not Approved Any Vaping Products, All of Them Are Now 'Subject to Enforcement Action'
The agency's decisions so far reflect a bias against the flavored e-liquids that former smokers overwhelmingly prefer.
Undoing Drugs
Harm reduction invites a radical reconsideration of the way the government deals with politically disfavored intoxicants.
A Record Number of Drug-Related Deaths Illustrates the Lethal Consequences of Prohibition
The war on drugs is not just ineffective; it exacerbates the problems it is supposed to alleviate.
Psychonautical Journalist Michael Pollan Is Finally Ready To End the War on Drugs
The evolution of Pollan's thinking reflects the confusion caused by arbitrary pharmacological distinctions.
A Twitter Tiff Between Former Federal Health Officials Highlights the Weakness of the Case for Banning Kratom
Former Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir says former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb's support for a ban was based on "embarrassingly poor evidence."
Philadelphia Safe Injection Site Hits Another Legal Roadblock
An appeals court panel rules the Controlled Substance Act's "crackhouse" provision forbids Safehouse from creating the facility.
To Protect 'Children' From E-Cigarettes, Congress Imposes New Restrictions on Everything Related to Vaping of Any Kind
The law bans mail delivery of vaping products and requires all vendors to comply with burdensome tax reporting rules.
The CDC's Shift From Vaping to COVID-19 Highlights the Crucial Differences Between Real and Metaphorical Epidemics
The agency's scaremongering about e-cigarettes undermined its credibility on the eve of a true public health crisis.
Trump Attacks Biden on Drug Policy From the Left
It's an interesting strategy for a president who ran in 2016 on a Nixonian "law and order" platform.
Philadelphia Safe Injection Site Opening Delayed
Blame angry neighbors, not the feds.
Philadelphia Poised To Open America's First Public Safe Injection Site in Just a Week
Federal judge confirms ruling that it doesn’t violate federal “crack house” law.
8 Months Later, This Journal Still Hasn't Corrected Its Study Implying That E-Cigarettes Magically Cause Heart Attacks Before People Use Them
The Journal of the American Heart Association has responded to critics with nothing but boilerplate promises of scientific integrity.
FDA Announces Ban on Flavored E-Cigarette Cartridges, Exempting E-Liquids Used in Refillable Vapes
For now, the FDA is targeting the vaping products that are most popular with teenagers. But the industry still faces a potentially devastating regulatory deadline.
FDA Ban on Flavored E-Cigarettes Is Expected to Exempt Open-System E-Liquids
In response to intense opposition from vapers and the industry, the Trump administration has recalibrated its plan.
Since Adolescent Drug Use Trends Are Otherwise Unalarming, Let's Freak Out About Vaping
The government and the press focus on newfangled contraptions instead of drug-related harm.
Public Health Scholars Warn: 'Prohibitionist' E-Cigarette Policies Undermine a 'Tremendous' Harm Reduction Opportunity
The Science article is a wake-up call for people who claim to be concerned about smoking-related disease and death.
Although Teenagers Are 80% Less Likely to Smoke Than They Were in 1999, the CDC Insists No Progress Has Been Made
The agency’s indifference between smoking and vaping is scientifically indefensible.
As the FDA Prepares to Ban E-Cigarette Flavors, the Government's Own Data Contradict Wild Claims About Adolescent Nicotine Addiction
The ban's supporters falsely claim that "a whole generation of young people" is "addicted to these products."
The Belated Approval of a Harm-Reduction Claim for Smokeless Tobacco Highlights the Potentially Deadly Impact of FDA Censorship
The FDA finally has agreed to allow a mild statement about the relative hazards of snus and cigarettes.
Federal Judge Rules Philly Injection Site Wouldn't Violate Drug Laws
A safe place meant to help prevent overdose deaths is not the same as a crackhouse.
As Opioid Prescriptions Surged in Germany, Opioid Addiction Held Steady, While Opioid-Related Deaths Fell
The data reinforce the point that there is no straightforward relationship between pain pill consumption and overdoses.
Another Way Fentanyl Phobia Can Be Deadly: It Undermines Good Samaritan Laws
Irrational fear of incidental contact with opioids can lead to criminal charges that make overdose bystanders less likely to call 911.
These People Are Risking Prison To Help Philadelphia's Drug Users
"All we want to do is save some young people from dying needlessly," says former Gov. Ed Rendell, who's on the board of Safehouse, the nation's first supervised injection site to operate out in the open.
U.S. Attorney for Seattle Threatens To Block Supervised Injection Facility
Nearly two decades of data from Canada show that such facilities reduce overdose deaths.
New Study Finds Almost Half of Juul Starter Kit Buyers Quit Within 3 Months
Those who continued to smoke cut their cigarette consumption in half.
Did Twitter Punish Criticism of Government Propaganda About Smokeless Tobacco?
After a harm reduction advocate slammed a hardy but misleading factoid, users who retweeted his message complained that they had been shadowbanned.
Surgeon General Undermines Harm Reduction by Pushing Anti-Vaping Policies and Propaganda
In the name of fighting "the epidemic of youth e-cigarette use," Jerome Adams wants to raise prices and ban indoor vaping.
Candidates Oppose Safe Injection Sites to Get an Edge Over the Other
A GOP candidate claims she's the only person in the race who opposes a life-saving opioid policy, but her Democratic opponent is against it as well.
Supervised Injection Facilities Save Lives
The Justice Department's opposition to such harm-reducing programs is irrational, unscientific, and inhumane.
DOJ Promises 'Aggressive' Response to Lifesaving Supervised Injection Facilities
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein condemns "havens" for drug users, notwithstanding their proven benefits.
New York's Mayor Backs Supervised Injection Facilities to Reduce Opioid Deaths
Bill de Blasio's plan includes four privately funded and operated "overdose prevention centers" in three boroughs.