Insights · Tag
Public Health
Drug policy written as public health treats addiction as a medical and social condition — not a moral failing to be punished into submission.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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 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.