Marijuana Use Hastens Onset of Schizophrenia
Honing in on the risks of cannabis, scientists have found that marijuana use hastens the onset of schizophrenia by nearly three years for those already at risk for the disorder. In the Archives of...
View ArticleIs a Dip in Cocaine Use a War on Drugs Victory?
When The New York Times ran a review last summer of a book about legalizing coke, Tom Feiling’s Cocaine Nation, the head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy wrote an old-fashioned...
View ArticleSupervised-Injection Site in Vancouver Meets Big Hurdle
This week, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear a case that could come to affect drug policy in the United States. At issue: Is the use of hard drugs necessarily a matter for federal criminal law? Or...
View ArticleWar on Drugs Remains at Stalemate After 40 Years
The headlines, commission reports and op-eds have been singing in chorus this month around the 40th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s declaration of a national war on drugs. “Panel Calls War on Drugs a...
View ArticleFeds Poke Hole in Needle Exchange Funding
The U.S. Congress passed a sprawling spending bill over the weekend — a massive piece of legislation that will fund the federal government for the next nine months — that contained a number of social...
View ArticleSolo Rock Stars Die Young
Do you dream of being a rock star? Do you hope to live a long life? If so, you’d better start prioritizing—or, at the very least, join a band. Because from Elvis Presley to Amy Winehouse, solo pop...
View ArticleBath Salts, Zombies, and Crossbows: An Update
It’s been about a year since the dangerous new synthetic drug, packaged and disguised as “bath salts,” entered America’s mainstream consciousness. Last summer the drug was blamed for a series of...
View ArticleTribal Communities Explore Creative Alternatives to Incarceration
Every community struggles to address crime in the most effective ways, and in ways that don’t just punish the offenders, but help prevent them from making the same mistakes in the future. And every...
View ArticleDrug Courts Are the Answer
In a speech on Monday in San Francisco, attorney general Eric Holder announced a dramatic change in the way the Justice Department would charge drug offenders. Low-level, non-violent offenders will no...
View ArticleLate Nights, Long Drives, and Too Much Speed
Driving under the influence of any drug, anywhere, is no joke. Alcohol and weed slow a driver’s reaction time, and speed and coke can impair a driver’s judgment in all sorts of ways—not least of which...
View ArticleReducing Crime With Limited Legalization
In the third season of the HBO series The Wire, a rogue member of the Baltimore Police Department introduces a bold social experiment to his drug-and-crime-ridden part of the city. Major “Bunny” Colvin...
View ArticleRemembering the Drug Court Revolution
“In the late 1980s, the war on drugs was in full swing,” said Justice Policy Institute Director Tim Murray, speaking before an audience in a Miami courthouse on a recent Friday morning. “It was in any...
View ArticleThe Dangers of Criminalizing Pregnancy Outcomes
When Senate Bill 1391 goes into effect this summer, Tennessee will become the first state in the nation to allow criminal assault charges to be filed against women whose fetus or newborn is harmed as a...
View ArticleThe Elusive Link Between Casinos and Crime
In September 2010, Philadelphia became the largest city in the U.S. to boast a casino. On the day SugarHouse Casino opened, as USA Today reported at the time, the crowds of excited new patrons were...
View ArticlePrescription Painkiller Abuse Linked With Heroin
There are times when crime-fighting and public health policy can resemble giant games of Whac-A-Mole. Increase police patrols and bright streetlamps to fight street crime in one neighborhood, and that...
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