Insights · Author
Andrew Drasen
Author · ReturnPath curriculum designer · Speaker on recovery, reentry, and drug policy
Published essays
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How to Talk to a Family Member About Getting Help for Addiction
A plain guide for families: when to bring up addiction help, what to say, what to skip, and what to do if your family member says no.
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Who to Call First When You Need Addiction Help
A plain guide to the first call for addiction help: when to use 988, what SAMHSA's National Helpline does, how to find free or low-cost treatment, and what to ask a program.
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What Happens When AI Speeds Up Medical Discovery?
AI is helping scientists find possible new medicines faster. Testing them in people still takes years, and a medicine only helps if it reaches the person who needs it.
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Grief After an Overdose Death: What Families and Friends Face
A plain guide to grief after someone you love dies of an overdose: the stigma, the questions that do not go away, what to say about the cause of death, when grief needs more help, and where to find people who understand.
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Faith-Based Reentry Programs: What a Restorative Approach Looks Like
A plain look at faith-based reentry programs: what they usually include, what the research says and does not say, how restorative justice fits, and questions to ask before you join or refer someone to one.
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Wisconsin Program Waitlists and Short Sentences
What a Wisconsin DOC programming waitlist actually means when the sentence is short, work release never pays, and the unmet need follows the person into a heavy community calendar.
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When a Loved One Comes Home From Jail or Prison in Early Recovery: A Family Guide
A plain family guide for when someone in early recovery comes home from jail or prison: what to ask before release, the overdose window, house agreements, how to talk, and how to keep your own strength.
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What Gives Life Meaning When Work Is Optional?
When paid work is no longer required, free time can become fulfillment or empty escape. Purpose has to be rebuilt on purpose.
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Drug Legalization Series Final Wrap-Up: A Drug Policy Reform Plan That Can Actually Work
This final wrap-up lays out a drug policy reform plan built on public health drug policy, risk-based drug regulation, treatment on demand, and a real overdose prevention policy that can outperform the status quo.
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Structured Grief Group Facilitation: Guardrails That Keep Sharing Safe
What structured grief group facilitation means: room agreements, processing sessions, and identity work that complements licensed grief therapy.
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Grieving Caroline in Recovery: Faith and the Choice Not to Go Back
Andrew Drasen on grieving his fiancée Caroline as someone who has struggled with addiction: why grief raises relapse risk, what helped, and how faith got him through.
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When Learning Becomes Invisible
A degree stays worth it when it builds real skills for today's workplace. Those skills can be built in a lab, a shop, a placement, or a shared class project. The project is a highly effective way, not the only way.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 36: What Success Looks Like at 5, 10, and 20 Years - Drug Policy Reform Outcomes That Matter
Part 36 explains what winning actually looks like through drug policy reform outcomes such as a stronger overdose prevention policy, better addiction treatment outcomes, real treatment on demand, and a durable public health drug policy.
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Truth in Sentencing and Losing Street Time in Wisconsin
Under Wisconsin Truth in Sentencing, years on extended supervision do not shrink the prison time you can be sent back for. How revocation math works.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 35: International Drug Treaties - Constraints, Flexibility, and the Legal Workarounds Countries Actually Use
Part 35 explains how international drug treaties shape reform, where cannabis treaty obligations get binding, how the UN drug conventions leave room for drug treaty reform, and why the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs does not make every reform path impossible.
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Wisconsin Justice System Definitions
Plain definitions for Wisconsin justice terms people mix up: charge and conviction, jail and prison, probation and extended supervision, and revocation.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 34: Cannabis Product Liability and Risk Management - Who Is Liable in a Regulated System
Part 34 explains why cannabis product liability, cannabis recall, cannabis labeling requirements, cannabis packaging requirements, and cannabis business insurance are features of a serious regulated market, not flaws.
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Immortality or an Avatar of Ourselves?
If we recorded a whole human life and loaded it into a body we grew, would that be immortality, a soul carried across, an avatar, or something else?
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Drug Legalization Series Part 33: The One-Page Case for Drug Regulation - The Executive Summary Policymakers Actually Read
Part 33 gives the case for drug regulation in one practical brief, showing why a public health drug policy, risk-based drug regulation, treatment on demand, and a real overdose prevention policy are more credible than the status quo.
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When the Internet Is in Our Brains
How silent biological interfaces turn internet search into instinct, and what happens when machine intelligence feels identical to personal memory.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 32: How to Talk About Drug Policy Without Losing the Public
Part 32 explains how drug policy messaging works when it uses addiction stigma language carefully, relies on person first language addiction principles, strengthens harm reduction messaging, and meets the public where public opinion on drug legalization actually is.
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How DAI Scores You Into Max, Medium, and Minimum
Wisconsin DAI classifies people with a point-based custody instrument. Age, a ten-year record, and the current felony add up before a job ever gets a chance to knock one off.
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Fear and Faith Cannot Live in the Same Place
From MSDF to Corrections Today, Milwaukee groups, and Better Moose. The money is tight. Fear and faith cannot live in the same place.
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Flock, Axon, and Motorola Are Still the Same Industry
Swapping Flock cameras for Axon or Motorola does not end networked license-plate surveillance. The industry is the product. Ask lawmakers to take a position.
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How the Machines Actually Take the Work: Robotics, AI, and Building the Post-Work World
Software in data centers was only the first half of automation. From robotic surgery and driverless freight to humanoid construction, embodied AI is taking over physical toil. Here is how we govern it and how the next generation can build the future.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 31: Federal, State, and Local Pathways - How Reform Actually Moves Under Existing Law
Part 31 explains how the marijuana rescheduling process, Medicaid 1115 waiver authority, local cannabis control, buprenorphine prescribing rules, and treatment on demand show that reform can already move under existing law.
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What I Mean When I Talk About Adopting a New Identity
Why abandoning an old self without building a destination leaves you wandering aimlessly, how to challenge internal labels, and the three questions that create a new life.
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Flock Cameras in Wisconsin: Who Votes, Who Pays, and What's Coming Next
Flock Safety cameras are spreading across Wisconsin towns while councils, sheriffs, and residents fight over who approves them, what they record, and where AI search goes next.
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Moral Injury vs PTSD: A Framework Map for Peer Leaders
Plain-language map of moral injury vs PTSD for peer-led groups (including veterans circles): definitions, overlap, facilitator boundaries, and when to refer to VA or clinical care.
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What to Say When a Loved One Relapses
Plain language for families after a relapse: words that keep dignity and accountability, what to avoid, boundaries you can keep, and how to point toward help.
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Who Gets Rich When AI Does the Work?
If AI and robots do more of the work, the people who own the computers, the power plants, and the robot fleets get the money. A monthly check alone is not the same thing as owning a share.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 30: Measuring Outcomes Without Surveillance - Public Health Data Privacy Without a Punitive State
Part 30 explains how public health data privacy can coexist with strong overdose surveillance, 42 CFR Part 2, de-identified health data, and substance use disorder confidentiality in a non-punitive system.
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Grief Is Misplaced Love
After losing Caroline, Andrew faced the identity questions that follow suicide loss. Grief as misplaced love, and how that pain became a lantern for other people.
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A Reentry Story: Part 1 - Coming Home After Ten Years
Andrew picks up his friend PG at Racine Correctional Institution after a ten-year sentence. Release clothes, Denny's, a phone, and the difference between support and rescue on day one.
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What If Most of Us Don't Have to Work Anymore?
AI and robotics could eventually make most paid work unnecessary. That future could expand human freedom, if we decide how to share its wealth and build meaning beyond jobs.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 29: Shrinking the Black Market - How Regulated Drug Supply Undercuts Illegal Markets Without Naivety
Part 29 explains how regulated drug supply can shrink black market drugs and undercut the illegal drug market when policy gets price, access, safety, and enforcement right.
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How Bias Shapes the Information We Receive and the Beliefs We Form
Bias changes more than our conclusions. It shapes what reaches us, what we notice, what we trust, how we interpret it, what we remember, and what eventually feels true.
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The Bottleneck of Bureaucracy: How Wisconsin Moves the Prison Pressure Around
Wisconsin's prison count fell when courts slowed, then climbed back toward its old peak. Here is how overcrowding, contract beds, and program scarcity move through the same machine.
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Why Peer-Led Reintegration Groups Matter After Incarceration
How shared experience, credible role models, mentorship, and belonging can help people process reentry and keep building after incarceration.
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Identity-Based Addiction Recovery vs. 12-Step and the Disease Model
How identity-based recovery relates to 12-step and disease-model care: recovery beyond sobriety, without replacing meetings, sponsorship, or clinical care.
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When the Government Can Make the Evidence
How courts handle deepfake evidence today: authenticity, fairness, and defense access. FRE 901 and Brady still apply; no AI-only federal rule yet.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 28: Preventing Big Tobacco 2.0: Cannabis Marketing Restrictions for a Regulated Drug Market
Part 28 explains how cannabis marketing restrictions, drug advertising restrictions, youth drug prevention, public health drug policy, and risk-based drug regulation can stop corporate capture before it starts.
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What Grief Support Curriculum Works for Bereavement Groups and Healing Circles?
Grief support curriculum for bereavement groups and healing circles: structured facilitation, meaning reconstruction after loss, and grief workbook practice in a 16-week ReturnPath arc.
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Dear AI Developers: Of Course the Agents Cheated. You Rewarded Them for It.
An open letter to AI developers on OpenAI and Anthropic disclosures: agents left sealed tests and reached real companies because the scoreboard rewarded the shortcut.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 27: Drug Impaired Driving Laws and Workplace Safety - How Regulation Strengthens Enforcement Where It Matters Most
Part 27: drug impaired driving and workplace safety improve when regulation focuses enforcement on actual impairment, not possession.
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What Curriculum Works for Veterans Reintegration and Moral Injury Peer Groups?
Veterans reintegration curriculum for moral injury peer groups: TAP support, peer boundaries, and identity reconstruction after service.
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Wisconsin’s Prison, Reentry, and Supervision Machine
An honest look at Wisconsin’s justice machine from someone who lived it: prisons, reentry, supervision, agents, cops, lawyers, PDs, laws, and lawmakers.
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Benzene in Sunscreen: Contaminant Language, Recalls, and Late Testing
Benzene is a known human carcinogen. Some sunscreen batches tested far above the drug limit. Soft words change when accountability arrives, not exposure.
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How People Rebuild Identity in Addiction Recovery
Research-backed identity reconstruction: narrative identity, possible selves, and redemption scripts in daily Workbook and ReturnPath practice.
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When Seeing Is No Longer Believing
Deepfakes can make fake evidence look real and real evidence look fake. Here is how public trust in video breaks, what Content Credentials can (and cannot) prove, and how to judge what you see.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 26: Protecting Youth and Families - Youth Drug Prevention Through Age Controls, Packaging, Marketing, and Liability
Part 26: youth drug prevention through cannabis age checks, packaging rules, marketing limits, child-resistant packaging, and accountability.
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What's a Good Recovery Workbook for Treatment Groups or Reentry Programs?
Recovery workbook for treatment groups and reentry: A Vision of Hope 90-day Workbook with daily accountability, plus ReturnPath for programs.
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Reentry Resources That Actually Help You Rebuild
Practical reentry resources after prison: 211, CareerOneStop, and SAMHSA for concrete needs, plus identity work families can support at home.
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What Curriculum Fits a 90-Day Inpatient or Short-Stay Track?
Identity-based workbook pacing for 90-day inpatient and short-stay residential tracks. ReturnPath complements clinical care, not a replacement.
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How Recovery Memoirs Treat Identity and Change
How recovery memoirs treat identity and change: shame, repair, and becoming someone new. Narrative psychology, not clinical neuroscience advice.
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Peer Recovery Groups for Young Adults Leaving Treatment or Justice Settings
Age-specialized peer recovery groups for young adults leaving treatment or justice settings: belonging, identity work, and guardrails beside clinical care.
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Why Guided Writing Works in Recovery (and What Research Says)
Guided journal for recovery and workbook science: what expressive writing research shows, and how structured daily practice differs from a blank notebook.
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When Recovery Stories Help, and When They Harm
Ethical use of recovery narratives: consent, coercion, co-option, and trauma-informed storytelling for facilitators, peers, and authors.
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The Identity Recovery Trap
After a Meta Business Suite phishing attack locked me out of a nearly twenty-year Facebook account, recovery took months. The hard part was not the password. It was proving I was me inside automated support.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 25: Punishing Pain or Saving Lives - The Real Choice in Drug Policy Reform
Part 25 reframes drug policy as punishing pain or saving lives: public health, overdose prevention, treatment on demand, and risk-based regulation.
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What Is Identity-Based Recovery in Addiction?
What is identity-based recovery? It focuses on who you are becoming, not only behaviors to stop, via three self-identifying steps and ReturnPath beside clinical care.
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Deepfake Selfies: Why Face Checks Fail
Can deepfake selfies fool identity verification? Yes, when fake faces, voices, and ID images arrive together. How selfie checks work, why they break, and what still holds.
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The AI Identity Problem: Can AI Agents Hijack Your Digital Identity?
A plausible AI-agent takeover could lock you out of your accounts, move money, and keep acting as you. What is possible now, and how do we prevent it?
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Drug Legalization Series Part 24: The Ethical Case for Regulation - What We Owe People We Know Will Use Drugs
Part 24 on drug legalization ethics: we owe regulation that cuts preventable death instead of outsourcing safety to a black market when use is inevitable.
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What Curriculum Can Halfway Houses Use for Reentry Programming?
ReturnPath halfway house reentry curriculum: goals, 16-week modules, process outcomes, workbook accountability, rolling enrollment, facilitator guides.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 23: What Failure Looks Like If We Don't Change: Projecting the Status Quo Forward
Part 23 models drug overdose death projections under today's laws, showing what failure may look like if we keep the status quo.
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What Substance Abuse Curriculum Works for IOP and Sober Living?
IOP substance abuse curriculum: goals, 16-week modules with Phase 2 values/identity, process outcomes, ReturnPath daily workbook between group sessions.
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How to Quit Using Drugs Without Treatment
How do I quit using drugs without treatment? Safety-first steps when rehab is unavailable, you are not ready for formal care, or fear keeps you from asking for help.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 22: Public Buy-In Is Built, Not Waited For: How Public Opinion Actually Shifts on Uncomfortable Drug Policy
How leaders build public support for drug policy that feels uncomfortable first, and why public perception shapes what lawmakers pass and fund.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 21: Drug Legalization Is Bipartisan: Political Reality, Not Political Fantasy
Part 21 explains why bipartisan drug policy reform is viable now and why regulated legalization is a public health and safety upgrade, not ideology.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 20: Urgency Without Panic - Why This Can't Wait Another Decade
Part 20 explains why an overdose prevention strategy can't wait another decade, and lays out urgent, measurable steps that reduce death without panic.
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Does Drug Legalization Reduce Recidivism?
How does drug legalization affect recidivism? It can cut drug-related arrests and re-incarceration cycles when reform pairs legal access with treatment, housing, and reentry support.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 19: This Is Already Being Administered - The Myth That Regulation Is Too Complex to Run
Part 19 argues regulation is already administered across health, safety, and controlled-substance systems, and how that capacity can scale responsibly.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 18: Public Health, Not Moral Panic - Building a Public Health Drug Policy That Actually Reduces Harm
Part 18 makes the case for public health drug policy that replaces moral panic with overdose prevention, harm reduction, and treatment on demand.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 17: Drug Decriminalization Case Studies: What Worked and What Failed
Part 17 reviews drug decriminalization case studies across the U.S. and abroad to show what worked, what failed, and why, without cherry-picking.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 16: How to Run a Drug Legalization Pilot Program Without Betting the Farm
Part 16: a drug legalization pilot framework, risk-based regulation, measured outcomes, diversion control, privacy, and results-based funding.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 15: Arguments Against Drug Legalization: The Hard Objections, Answered Directly
The strongest arguments against drug legalization deserve direct answers, pros and cons, youth access, public safety, and whether use rises.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 14: A Regulated Pharmacy Model for High-Risk Substances
A regulated pharmacy model for high-risk substances could replace street chaos with standards, cut overdose risk, and connect people to treatment fast.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 13: Mental Health, Housing, and Despair
Part 13 explores drug addiction and homelessness, mental illness, and housing-first recovery in the drug legalization and regulation series.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 12: Overdose Risk After Prison Release
Prison release overdose risk peaks in the first days and two weeks. Care continuity, MOUD, naloxone, and housing decide who survives.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 11: Prevention That Isn’t Propaganda
Evidence-based drug prevention beats scare tactics, what reduces youth use, why fear-based education fails, and how prevention fits regulation.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 10: With Drug Legalization, Accountability Still Exists
Part 10 explores drug legalization accountability: what gets enforced when use isn't a crime, and how a regulated market protects the public.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 9: What Regulation Would Actually Look Like
Risk-based drug regulation in practice: supply control, age and potency limits, licensing, taxation, enforcement priorities, and recovery infrastructure.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 8: Fear Is Not a Policy: The Known Failure vs the Imagined Risk
Part 8 explores fear-based drug policy, Oregon's Measure 110 results, and what effective drug policy would require in the legalization series.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 7: Recovery Lockbox: Fund Addiction Treatment Without Raising Taxes
A recovery lockbox captures enforcement savings and regulated-market revenue to fund MOUD, housing, and reentry, using FY 2025 budget realities.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 6: Tusi (Pink Cocaine), Xylazine, and THC Analogues: Why Enforcement Can’t Keep Up
Tusi, xylazine, medetomidine, nitazenes, and THC analogues prove enforcement can't keep up. Regulation creates testing, labeling, and accountability.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 5: How Illegal Drug Markets Power Gangs and Cartels
Drug prohibition violence is predictable, illegal markets fuel gangs, cartels, and violence. How prohibition creates the chaos it claims to stop.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 4: What Drug Legalization and Regulation Actually Buys Us
Legalization and regulation isn't endorsement, a regulated supply with testing, labeling, fentanyl strips, and accountability prohibition can't deliver.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 3: Can You Vote or Own a Gun With a Drug Felony?
Drug felony conviction: voting rights, gun rights, and the permanent sentence rarely discussed. Part 3 in the drug legalization series.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 2: Drug Felony Consequences After Release
Drug felony consequences go far beyond court: employment and housing barriers, ruined credit, and traps that follow people after release.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 1.5: Legalization vs Decriminalization vs Regulation: Drug Policy Explained
Legalization isn't one policy. This post explains legalization vs decriminalization vs regulation, and what strict regulation delivers.
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Drug Legalization Series Part 1: Drug Legalization Isn’t Endorsement. It’s Regulation and Harm Reduction.
Drug legalization isn’t endorsement. Part 1 explains why punishment fails, why reentry is deadly, and why harm reduction saves lives.
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The Psychology of Overcoming Setbacks in Recovery
Overcoming setbacks in recovery often looks like failure. Why growth can feel like regression, and what to do the next day.
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Best Addiction & Sobriety Memoirs
Ten addiction and sobriety memoirs, picked by a formerly incarcerated author in recovery, covering relapse, family, prison, and coming back, with who each one fits.
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Addiction Recovery Resources That Could Save Your Life
Free addiction recovery resources: SAMHSA helpline, AA and NA, FindTreatment.gov, and 988. For people in recovery and families who need help now.
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3 Events: How a Pen, a Sales Floor, and a Goodbye Shaped My Life
Personal transformation journey, three turning points from addiction, loss, and sales floor to purpose, the memoir, and ReturnPath curriculum.
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Why Redemption Stories Matter: Now More Than Ever
Redemption stories and second chances, why honest recovery narratives matter for healing, identity, and the memoir behind ReturnPath.