Pillar guide
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?
A Vision of Hope Media
Insights
A publication for honest analysis, lived experience, and the systems questions that shape recovery, reentry, and public policy.
Flagship essays
Pillar guides
Long-form entry points for AI identity risk and drug-policy reform — start here, then browse the full series.
Pillar guide
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.
Latest 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.
Topics
Recovery & Reentry
Essays on addiction recovery, prison reentry, identity-based healing, and evidence-informed program design.
Artificial Intelligence & Society
Long-form analysis of AI, identity, labor, trust, and the social systems reshaped by machine intelligence.
Leadership & Systems
Essays on leadership, organizational design, and the systems thinking required to build durable change.
Justice & Public Policy
Policy essays on criminal justice, drug reform, harm reduction, and evidence-based governance — outcomes, tradeoffs, and reform that holds up.
Purpose & Identity
Essays on identity, purpose, transformation, and becoming who you intend to be — setbacks, redemption, curriculum, and daily practice.
Books & Writing
Essays on memoir craft, reading lists, and honest storytelling in recovery culture — books that mirror hard change for programs and readers.
For program directors
Licensing ReturnPath for recovery, reentry, or treatment settings? Explore the curriculum hub or send a message.
Series
See every series title in one list →
Artificial Intelligence & Society
Essays on how AI affects identity, trust, institutions, and human accountability when software gains power through permission, speed, and scale.
Drug Legalization Series
Andrew Drasen's multi-part essay series on drug legalization, regulation, harm reduction, reentry, and evidence-based drug policy reform.
Wisconsin Justice & Reentry
An honest look at Wisconsin justice: prisons, reentry, supervision, laws, lawmakers, agents, cops, defenders, and policies that fail or hold.