Shows
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 92: The Drug War’s Invisible Casualties with Sheila VakhariaOverdose deaths are the go-to metric for how well drug policy is performing, but those on the ground know that harms from the drug war can include much more than the worst outcomes. As harm reduction policies get swept up in escalating authoritarian attacks on democracy, it’s becoming even more vital for those who value bodily autonomy to stand up for justice, backed up by rigorous science and data.
On this episode, Narcotica co-hosts Aaron Ferguson, Chris Moraff and Troy Farah speak with Sheila Vakharia, a harm reductionist, researcher, social worker and the Deputy Director of Re...
2025-08-281h 06NarcoticaEpisode 92: The Drug War’s Invisible Casualties with Sheila VakhariaOverdose deaths are the go-to metric for how well drug policy is performing, but those on the ground know that harms from the drug war can include much more than the worst outcomes. As harm reduction policies get swept up in escalating authoritarian attacks on democracy, it’s becoming even more vital for those who value bodily autonomy to stand up for justice, backed up by rigorous science and data.
On this episode, Narcotica co-hosts Aaron Ferguson, Chris Moraff and Troy Farah speak with Sheila Vakharia, a harm reductionist, researcher, social worker and the Deputy Director of Re...
2025-08-281h 06
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 90: Navigating Shifting Chemical Landscapes with Claire ZagorskiThe endless whac-a-mole of the drug war, banning one chemical as soon as three more become popular, can never be won. That just isn’t how chemistry or human nature works. But that hasn’t stopped profiteers and special interest groups from pushing the same old strategies, none of which has resulted in significantly lowering overdose deaths or making communities healthier.
It has, however, resulted in strange new drugs arriving on the street, which means harm reduction has had to evolve and respond every time something new comes along. How do we navigate all this change? By foll...
2025-03-021h 10NarcoticaEpisode 90: Navigating Shifting Chemical Landscapes with Claire ZagorskiThe endless whac-a-mole of the drug war, banning one chemical as soon as three more become popular, can never be won. That just isn’t how chemistry or human nature works. But that hasn’t stopped profiteers and special interest groups from pushing the same old strategies, none of which has resulted in significantly lowering overdose deaths or making communities healthier.
It has, however, resulted in strange new drugs arriving on the street, which means harm reduction has had to evolve and respond every time something new comes along. How do we navigate all this change? By foll...
2025-03-021h 10
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 89: Can Good Drug Policy Survive 2025?Last year was a crazy time for drug policy and 2025 is looking to up the ante on the chaos. Narcotica hosts Chris Moraff, Aaron Ferguson and Troy Farah reflect on what went wrong, what can be done and what to hope for, even in the midst of an escalating crisis.
They discuss the recent counts in overdose deaths, how fentanyl is changing (and even disappearing in some cases) while xylazine, medetomidine and other drugs are making their way into dope bags. Of course, everyone is concerned with how the incoming administration will handle things, including their bloodthirst...
2025-01-1045 minNarcoticaEpisode 89: Can Good Drug Policy Survive 2025?Last year was a crazy time for drug policy and 2025 is looking to up the ante on the chaos. Narcotica hosts Chris Moraff, Aaron Ferguson and Troy Farah reflect on what went wrong, what can be done and what to hope for, even in the midst of an escalating crisis.
They discuss the recent counts in overdose deaths, how fentanyl is changing (and even disappearing in some cases) while xylazine, medetomidine and other drugs are making their way into dope bags. Of course, everyone is concerned with how the incoming administration will handle things, including their bloodthirst...
2025-01-1045 min
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 88: Helping Harm Reduction Flourish with Joy RuckerHarm reduction means so many different things to so many different people, and some have even grown weary of the way the term has now been weaponized. How do we get back to the true core of helping people? Maybe by returning to the roots of the harm reduction movement to understand why these practices evolved in the first place.
On this episode, Narcotica co-hosts Aaron Ferguson and Troy Farah speak with Joy Rucker, co-founder of the Black Harm Reduction Network (BHRN), and also a National Harm Reduction Consultant and Founder of the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance...
2024-09-2654 minNarcoticaEpisode 88: Helping Harm Reduction Flourish with Joy RuckerHarm reduction means so many different things to so many different people, and some have even grown weary of the way the term has now been weaponized. How do we get back to the true core of helping people? Maybe by returning to the roots of the harm reduction movement to understand why these practices evolved in the first place.
On this episode, Narcotica co-hosts Aaron Ferguson and Troy Farah speak with Joy Rucker, co-founder of the Black Harm Reduction Network (BHRN), and also a National Harm Reduction Consultant and Founder of the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance...
2024-09-2654 min
NarcoticaEpisode 87: Drug Testing Equals Empowerment with Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta and Charlton RoversonOn today’s episode, we’re going to talk about drug testing but not the tedious ways in which you should (probably) do it. There are plenty of great guides out there which we’ll link to one or two in the show notes. Instead, we’re going to discuss how drug testing equals empowerment. It’s more than just knowing what you may or may not be taking. It’s about stepping in where the government has failed and finding autonomy.
Narcotica co-hosts Aaron Ferguson and Troy Farah spoke with Charlton Roverson, the Eastern Regional Coordinator with the Nor...
2024-08-011h 06Narcotica PodcastEpisode 87: Drug Testing Equals Empowerment with Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta and Charlton RoversonOn today’s episode, we’re going to talk about drug testing but not the tedious ways in which you should (probably) do it. There are plenty of great guides out there which we’ll link to one or two in the show notes. Instead, we’re going to discuss how drug testing equals empowerment. It’s more than just knowing what you may or may not be taking. It’s about stepping in where the government has failed and finding autonomy.
Narcotica co-hosts Aaron Ferguson and Troy Farah spoke with Charlton Roverson, the Eastern Regional Coordinator with the Nor...
2024-08-011h 06
Narcotica PodcastBonus Episode: When Nothing Changes Nothing Changes from Naturally NoncompliantNarcotica and Narcomedia are proud to share an exciting new sibling podcast, Naturally Noncompliant, which is about people who stand in line and fight for safe supply, especially methadone, the original safe supply. Methadone is the first frontier in this fight, and this show emphasizes the voices of patients and directly impacted people in that battle.
The material for this show stems from the “Naturally Noncompliant” call that takes place every other Thursday and is organized by the National Survivors Union, the national voice of people who use drugs.
During COVID-19 methadone clinics were allowed to r...
2024-05-2832 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 86: Why Naloxone Still Matters with Nancy D. CampbellNaloxone is a miracle drug. Calling any drug a miracle can be problematic, but admittedly there are a few of them, in my opinion: penicillin, insulin, mifepristone and misoprostol, thorazine, viagra (cough, cough) and yes, naloxone. I think it qualifies as a miracle drug, something that works so well it is astonishing.
So many people fought so hard and for so long to have access to naloxone. It wasn’t always so available like it is in some places today. But the way that we are treating opioid overdose antagonists is changing. Many companies have price-gouged their wa...
2024-04-291h 15
Quality Insights PodcastTaking Healthcare by Storm: Industry Insights with Christopher MoraffIn this captivating episode of Taking Healthcare by Storm, delve into the world of expert insights as Quality Insights Medical Director Dr. Jean Storm engages in a thought-provoking and informative discussion with Christopher Moraff, a nationally recognized journalist who writes on the intersection of policing, criminal justice, drug policy and civil libertiesLearn more about PA Groundhogs. Listen to the Narcotica podcast.If you have any topics or guests you'd like to see on future episodes, reach out to us on our website. This material was prepared by Quality Insights, a Quality In...
2024-03-0837 min
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 85: “Narcoterrorism” is just another forever war lie with Oswaldo ZavalaIf you only get your international drug policy history from Netflix, you might think that the drug traffickers in Mexico are a smart, coordinated system of violent sociopaths that control the government. They are cartels. Therefore they have leadership, and hierarchies and tangible targets that can be taken out just like in a Call of Duty game.
This rhetoric has driven us to where we are today, with talks of labeling fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction — as ludicrous a label anyone could generate for such a thing — and serious conversation by right wing lunatics who are sugg...
2024-02-091h 09
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 84: How Drug Seizures Damage Public Health with Drs. Bradley Ray, Jennifer J. Carroll and Brandon del PozoLike some kind of perverse fishing expedition, we’re all familiar with the drug warriors’ favorite form of theater: the drug bust. Every police department seems to do this, posing their officers with huge (or even tiny, inconsequential) bags of drugs, stacks of cash and sometimes a cache of weapons, propping everything up as if it’s the prize that will finally win this futile, violent campaign.
It’s been clear for decades that drug busts don’t stop the flow of drugs (or even make a dent), but amongst certain people, it is also common knowledge that these...
2024-01-121h 09
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 83: The Parents Who Oppose The War on Drugs with Tamara Olt and Gretchen BergmanThe War on (People who Use) Drugs has claimed over a million victims in the last two decades, every fatal overdose representing deep policy failures that attempt in vain to control normal human behavior: self-medicating and inducing euphoria.
None of this wonky policy bullshit matters much when you’re the parent of a child who dies from an overdose.
Few things in life are as devastating as losing your kid. It stirs up some of the deepest, darkest emotions humans are capable of and when drugs are involved, that typically turns into a thirst for re...
2023-06-151h 19
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 82: Drug War Activism and the Future of Harm Reduction with Louise VincentThe Drug War is more brutal than ever. Overdose deaths are still shattering records, there’s talk of war with the cartels, increased penalties are just making things worse, there’s little money for harm reduction programs or addiction treatment, yet plenty of cash for prisons, cops and the DEA, weird new drugs are appearing that no one knows how to handle and on and on. Meanwhile, the harm reduction movement is going through some massive changes, some good, some bad. But what we know for sure is that it’s critical for people to come together, stand up and de...
2023-04-211h 12
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 81: Harm Reduction Against the Prison-Industrial ComplexHarm reduction is an imperfect philosophy that serves as the only wedge between prohibition and what we all really want, which is a healthy, productive society. If more police and prisons could make drugs safer, we’d have a lot less overdose deaths and problematic addiction. But that’s not what’s happening. Drugs are more available than ever, while overdose deaths continue to shatter records. If this is a war, we lost long ago. (Of course, as we repeatedly emphasize on this show, not all drug use is addiction and in fact, most of it isn’t.)
Instea...
2023-02-021h 15Narcotica PodcastEpisode 80: A Messy History of Methadone with Dr. Zoe Adams
At Narcotica, we’ve often talked about how methadone is one of the most over-regulated substances on the planet. It’s not a perfect drug — nothing is — but it helps a lot of people. So why is it so hard to access?
On this episode, the crew (Zachary Siegel, Chris Moraff and Troy Farah) speak with Dr. Zoe Adams, an internal medicine resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, whose thesis was a narrative history of methadone. It’s a long, strange chronicle, from its development in Germany, to becoming a mainstay in Nixon’s War on Drugs, but what’s most...
2022-12-311h 16Narcotica PodcastEpisode 79: Is California Really Progressive on Drugs? with Dr. Isaac Jackson
People have this conception that San Francisco’s streets are just overflowing with human shit and people injecting drugs in the open. Stereotypes about California being overrun with homeless encampments and open-air drug markets abound, as if these things don’t exist in other states, while politicians in Arkansas and Oklahoma, for example, warn against so-called progressive policies infecting the midwest. But how true is all this?
San Francisco in particular is associated with progressive policy, especially when it comes to drugs. From the chill vibes of Haight-Ashbury and Hippie Hill to opening Prevention Point in 1988, the Gold...
2022-12-191h 12
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 78: Drug Use in a Post-Roe World with Dinah OrtizA future where abortion drugs like mifepristone and misoprostol are trafficked just like fentanyl or methamphetamine or where birth control is sold on the street corner like crack cocaine is really not that distant of a reality, if it’s not already happening.
The drug war is deeply intertwined with reproductive rights. That’s not always obvious to some people, but at Narcotica, we will emphasize over and over that bodily autonomy — the core of harm reduction and progressive drug policy — includes abortion access and reproductive sovereignty as much it includes the human right to freely use drugs.
2022-09-2754 min
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 77: Harm Production — The Hazards of Drug Courts with Dave LucasThe United States sure loves to cage people. Incarceration statistics can be shocking, but they can be cited so often that they can lose their potency. It can seem abstract or just the way things are. But it is completely immoral that the U.S. throws more people into cages than any other country for which we have reliable data.
In order to partially address this problem, some jurisdictions have promoted the idea of drug courts, which the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services defines as “alternative to incarceration, drug courts reduce the burden and co...
2022-09-071h 04
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 76: How To Change Your Mind About ALL Drugs with Veronica WrightCertain celebrity authors want to help you accept that certain drug use is OK—and there’s nothing wrong with psychedelic exceptionalism, but it overlooks the biggest destructive forces of the drug war. Yet, legalizing drugs like meth, heroin and cocaine remains a hard sell for even the most progressive of drug policy reformers. So how do we cross this bridge?
Narcotica co-host Chris Moraff speaks with Veronica Wright, founder of the National Coalition for Drug Legalization. They discuss how prohibition is far worse than the drugs deemed too dangerous for public consumption, and only works to wors...
2022-08-0549 min
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 75: Copaganda — The Favorite Tool of Drug Warriors with Alec KarakatsanisNo matter what the problem is, whether it’s fentanyl overdoses or mass shootings, the solution to all of our problems is always more money and bigger budgets for police, prosecutors and prisons. Funny how that works, right? If crime goes up we need police, if crime goes down it’s because of the police, so we still need more police. They can’t lose!
One of the main ways public support for police is so insidious has to do with police propaganda (e.g. copaganda) but it can be hard to detect, let alone debunk, these powerf...
2022-07-2558 min
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 74: Cannabis And Capitalism — Preventing Another Big Tobacco with Shaleen TitleFor good reason, about 150 million people use cannabis, according to the World Health Organization. That’s around 3 percent of the global population or the entire population of Russia. In most places, smoking the flowers or extracts of this plant can come with some steep legal consequences: long prison sentences, heavy fines, loss of civil rights, the state may take away your kids or deny you medical care. You may even get executed.
For some of us, especially if we live in places where cannabis is legal, such dire consequences for using cannabis can seem like a distant ni...
2022-07-1358 min
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 73: Oh No! Not Naltrexone! with Nancy CurranNaltrexone, also known by its brand name, Vivitrol, is an opioid antagonist that kicks opioids off of opioid receptor in the brain, not unlike naloxone. But thanks to a combination of overprescription, unscrupulous marketing practices and ubiquitous use over more effective alternatives, naltrexone is a very controversial drug. In fact, a common reaction is Oh no! Not naltrexone!
Of course, naltrexone has some benefits and many people say their life has been saved by it. And at Narcotica, we don’t believe any drug is “bad” or “evil.” So where does this substance fit into the broader scheme of...
2022-06-261h 08
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 72: When The Trip Doesn’t End with Ed PrideauxPsychedelics and other drugs can trigger a condition called Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder, a terrible name for a real condition that we don’t have much data on and is poorly understood. But while it’s clear that psychedelics shouldn’t be illegal, it’s also clear we’re still learning about some of the risks. This fascinating and often distressing phenomenon deserves a closer look, but not everything about it is devastatingly tragic, either.
In this episode of Narcotica, co-host Troy Farah talks all about HPPD with Ed Prideaux, a master’s student in psychology at the Universi...
2022-05-281h 17Narcotica PodcastEpisode 71: Aduhelm, Obscene Drug Prices and Big Pharma Tactics with Dr. John AbramsonIt’s easy to hate the massive pharmaceutical corporations that extract obscene profit from the healthcare system—and there are many, many reasons why you should distrust these companies, although the situation is far more complex than “Big Pharma = bad.” But how did we get here? How did medical care get so expensive, so complicated and sometimes, so harmful?
Narcotica co-host Troy Farah speaks with Dr. John Abramson, a long-time critic of Big Pharma, whose new book Sickening untangles the many perverse incentives that dominate American healthcare. It helps explain why drug prices are so high, why medicati...
2022-04-121h 02Narcotica PodcastEpisode 70: How Testosterone Bans Criminalize the Body with Adryan CorcioneImagine banning a chemical that we all make in our bodies. But that’s exactly where drug war logic takes us and why testosterone is Schedule III on the Controlled Substances Act, alongside ketamine and buprenorphine. Testosterone is painted as some dangerous substance that must be locked up. These outlandish fears led to restrictive laws which lead to criminalization and barriers to access—essentially criminalizing identity and the very bodies we inhabit. But bans on testosterone, ostensibly to stop athletes from boosting their competitive abilities, can have real world impacts, especially for gender variant people, especially transmasculine people.
Na...
2022-04-0452 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 69: The Promise and Peril of the Psychedelic Mainstream with Shelby Hartman and Madison MargolinPsychedelics are not exactly taking the same path that cannabis has taken to the mainstream, but there are some similarities. In the late ‘90s and early aughts, when medical cannabis was first starting to take hold in California, quasi-legal businesses popped up overnight, with a lot of questionable quality control and these shops were often raided by the DEA. Now cannabis is so blasé in places like California and more than 15 other states that have adult-use weed, that it’s almost hard to imagine a time when you couldn’t have a bag of cannabis gummies, plus a joint dipped...
2022-03-2153 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 68: Is The Drug War Getting Better… Or Worse? with Zach Siegel, Chris Moraff and Troy FarahOn this episode, Narcotica co-hosts Zachary Siegel, Chris Moraff and Troy Farah interview each other, riffing on one question: Is the drug war getting better… Or worse? They cover everything from nitazenes, Dopesick, the Drug User’s Liberation Front, banning psychedelics like DiPT, benzo dope, West Virginia, buprenorphine, psychedelic exceptionalism, drug testing, crack pipes, supervised consumption sites in NYC and much, much, more.
Their conclusion? You’ll have to listen to find out. OK, not really: Like many things, it’s a mix of both progress and backsliding. Narcotica’s founders discuss their current frustrations and what’s giving the...
2022-03-031h 10Narcotica PodcastEpisode 67: Methadone in the Time of Covid with Danielle RussellHarm reduction programs like syringe access, supervised consumption or even just handing out condoms on the street, can be some of the only access to healthcare some people encounter. Definitely not all, but some people who use drugs routinely shun going to the doctor—not because they don’t care about their health, but because our for-profit healthcare system treats almost everyone who uses an illicit substance like complete shit. And people who use drugs have been treated like pariahs long before the covid pandemic, but things got way worse once the virus came to town.
Previously on N...
2022-02-0858 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 66: Overlooking Alcohol and The Nature of Addiction with Dr. Stanton PeeleBooze is one of the most ancient and most prolific drugs in society, yet for some reason, it’s always placed in some separate category. Drugs and alcohol. Even at Narcotica, we’ve done over 65 episodes about drugs and not one of them has focused solely on ethanol. We just haven’t gotten to it yet, we’ve had so many other topics we’ve wanted to explore.
The relationship people have with alcohol is so illustrative of Western society’s perspective on addiction and substance use, which is linked to the idea that addiction is a disease...
2022-01-221h 09
Narcotica PodcastEpisode 65: Restoring Trust in Doctors Amidst The Overdose Crisis with Dr. Ben Cocchiaro and Dr. Ashish ThakrarOver the past two decades, as fatal drug overdoses have risen precipitously, few professions have been hit harder by the crisis than the medical community. Physicians in particular have found themselves in the no-win position of being both blamed for the overdose crisis, which claimed more than 100,000 American lives in the past 12 months, while being tasked with containing it.
According to one dominant narrative, it was cavalier doctors who sparked the crisis in the first place, by overprescribing habit forming narcotic painkillers to millions of Americans after being softened up at lavish dinners and then duped by...
2021-11-201h 05Narcotica PodcastEpisode 64: LSD And Psilocybin For Physical Pain? with Greg McKee and Dr. Johannes RamaekersThese days, there isn’t an ailment some Silicon Valley-esque startup is trying to treat with psychedelics. Of course you have depression, anxiety, addiction, PTSD and fear of death for the terminally ill—there’s some good data for treating all of that—but some of the more obscure treatments include anorexia and eating disorders, sexual dysfunction, dementia, and even rare conditions like fragile X syndrome.
Psychedelics are amazing drugs, but they’re not a panacea. It’s not that this research isn’t worth investigating, but how do you determine what’s just hype and what the actual poten...
2021-11-031h 20Narcotica PodcastEpisode 63: Delta-8-THC And Other Obscure Cannabinoids with Jason WilsonNearly half the U.S. population now have access to adult-use cannabis. Marijuana is a medicine, if it’s cultivated or extracted right, and millions of people find relief or pleasure from this fantastic plant. But as legalization accelerates, regulations have struggled to keep up. Most experts and maybe many consumers would agree that cannabis is not well regulated or could use some improvements.
Meanwhile, new cannabinoids like delta-8-THC, THC-O and more are hitting the streets, licit and illicit. This is a rapidly changing environment, which is far beyond THC and CBD, the two most well-known dru...
2021-10-081h 14Narcotica PodcastEpisode 62: Policing Pleasure — The Intersection of Sex Work and Drug Use with Tamika Spellman and Caty SimonSex work is work, just like coal mining, professional sports and literally any job that involves physical labor. So why is a show about drugs interested in sex work? For starters, there’s a lot of overlap in terms of harm reduction services that help people who use drugs and sex workers. Unfortunately, these services can be criminalized and weaponized against both communities.
One analogy is condoms and syringes: Syringes can be, and sadly often are, considered paraphernalia and evidence of illegal drug use. Believe it or not, police can, and do, consider condoms as evidence of eng...
2021-09-141h 25Narcotica PodcastEpisode 61: Undoing Drugs—Harm Reduction’s Early History with Maia SzalavitzWe’re truly living through a disaster. Drug overdose deaths rose nearly 30 percent in 2020 to a record high 93,000. This is no longer an “opioid” crisis. What I mean is, 2020 overdose deaths linked to stimulants, especially methamphetamine, also broke records. The other key development here is the further entrenchment of illicit fentanyl in the drug supply, it’s a contamination at mass-scale. At this point, we’re in a poisoning crisis driven by one thing: prohibition.
But harm reduction is the movement that continues to push back against draconian drug policy, even when the odds seem against us. Longterm l...
2021-07-271h 06Narcotica PodcastEpisode 60: Perinatal Panic—Drugs, Pregnancy and Stigma with Ria Tsinas, Joelle Puccio and Erika GoyerOne area where drug stigma especially persists, even among harm reduction advocates, is the prejudice against mothers and pregnant people who use drugs. Even some people in syringe exchange or who work in drug policy are against the idea of people with the capacity for pregnancy, (i.e. anyone with a uterus), using pretty much any drugs for any purpose.
It’s not clear why the principles of harm reduction that we extend to almost everyone else suddenly stop when it involves a fetus or a uterus. But the lives of pregnant people are no less important th...
2021-07-171h 40Narcotica PodcastEpisode 59: Psychedelic Extinction—How Poaching Endangers Some Psychoactive Plants with Dr. Anya ErmakovaPsychedelic drugs are well beyond the quote ‘renaissance’ stage and relatively recently entered a ‘gold rush’ as dozens of companies maneuver themselves to make this nascent industry as profitable as possible for themselves. At least that’s part of their motivation. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword for folks that want to see an end to the drug war, but also don’t want access to these substances available only through doctors and therapists.
While Big Pharma slowly ambles onward to transform psychedelics into the next blockbuster pharmaceutical, the plant medicine decriminalization movement is steadily growing in the...
2021-07-011h 09Narcotica PodcastEpisode 58: How Racism Fuels The Drug War with Kassandra FrederiqueFew social justice groups have put in as much work to end the war on (people who use) drugs like the Drug Policy Alliance. Since 2000, DPA has been behind some landmark drug reforms, such as leading a campaign to enact major reforms of New York’s notorious Rockefeller drug laws, assisting in a public education campaign that saw Uruguay legalize cannabis in 2013, not to mention funding and drafting the Oregon drug decriminalization measure that passed last year. According to the organization, DPA has played a pivotal role in roughly half of the campaigns that have legalized medical marijuana in th...
2021-06-1255 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 57: Autism, Acid and the Altered Brain with Aaron Orsini and Justine LeeFor many people, psychedelic drugs like LSD or psilocybin are their first major introduction to a profoundly altered state of consciousness. Mental conditions like autism or ADHD are other forms of consciousness, although they don’t wear off after 12 hours and so-called ‘neurotypical’ people often have misconceptions about these mental arrangements. Many folks with autism don’t see their condition as a defect or something to be fixed, an attitude that has sparked the neurodiversity movement. But, autism does come with its own set of challenges, some especially find difficulty in socializing with others.
A very early body of...
2021-05-2357 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 56: Drug Use During Disaster with Aaron FergusonOur planet is in crisis, plagued by an increase in wildfires, floods, hurricanes, freak storms and outbreaks of disease. As a result, we’re seeing more and more people isolated, left to fend for themselves, as the cracks in public infrastructure only seem to widen.
To use one prominent example, the state of Texas has been slapped with recurrent cataclysms and catastrophes of late, most recently the February winter storm that crushed the power grid, leading to food and water shortages, which left at least 111 people dead.
At Narcotica, we always wonder about what happens to...
2021-05-0256 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 55: Street Sampling Synthetics, from Carfentanil to Xylazine with Alex Krotulski
Amid a wave of synthetic drugs in recent years, Kensington, Pennsylvania has emerged as the locus for a different kind of experimentation, through a new generation of freelance entrepreneurs. Their bathtub chemistry is often guided by trial and error—leaving doctors, public health officials and harm reductionists struggling to understand the latest side effects.Last year, a concerned toxicologist from the nonprofit Center for Forensic Science Research & Education (CFSRE) at the Fredric Rieders Family Foundation, the academic and research arm of NMS Labs outside Philadelphia, conceived of a new testing program. It employs sophisticated mass spectrometry to re...
2021-04-2444 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 54: West Virginia, America’s Worst Overdose and HIV Hotspot with Lauren Peace
There’s a “twindemic” raging across the state of West Virginia: Covid-19 has collided with an outbreak of HIV and hepatitis C. If that’s not bad enough, West Virginia has the highest overdose death rate in the nation. The CDC recently called the HIV outbreak in Kanawha County, West Virginia the “most concerning” in the country. Make no mistake, this outbreak is preventable, and is largely driven by the failure of local governments to provide syringe service programs to people who use drugs. Even worse, West Virginia lawmakers are actively trying to pass legislation to further restrict har...
2021-03-221h 03Narcotica PodcastEpisode 53: A Life of Getting Lit with Tommy Chong
It’s kinda weird hearing people say “weed is mainstream” now, when merely possessing the plant stuff can still earn you serious consequences in many parts of the world. But the growing popularity of cannabis is unmistakable. Marijuana is now a global, multi-billion dollar industry—well, to be fair, it always was, only now it’s all legitimate and overtaxed and commercialized instead of enriching drug cartels. Regardless, cannabis is more popular than ever, with a rapidly growing fandom among older generations. Even Martha Stewart is into CBD now. But while it’s great to see so many people s...
2021-03-111h 12Narcotica PodcastEpisode 52: The Fundamental Human Right to Get High with Casey William Hardison
Maybe it seems like an obvious question, but why is certain drug use illegal in the first place? Don’t you, as a human being, have some bodily autonomy and doesn’t that extend to alterations in the mind as well? What about the fundamental right to change your mind?
On this episode of Narcotica, co-hosts Troy Farah, Chris Moraff and Zachary Siegel talk with Casey William Hardison about cognitive liberty, the freedom of thought, and how that relates to prohibiting some drugs but not others. Hardison is a giant in the underground chemistry scene, who has rubb...
2021-02-2358 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 51: The Joy of Drug Use with Dr. Carl Hart
Dr. Carl Hart has long been known as America’s preeminent drug scientist. If you listen to our show regularly, you’ve probably heard of him. He appeared briefly way back on Episode 6, talking about crack-cocaine. For the uninitiated, Dr. Hart is a neuroscientist at Columbia University, and he’s published well over 100 peer-reviewed, scientific papers, which produces vital knowledge and understanding of how drugs work not only in the brain, but how they work in people’s lives and society at-large.
But lately, Dr. Hart has taken his work outside the lab with his new book, “Drug Use f...
2021-02-211h 09Narcotica PodcastEpisode 50: Sicarios and Supply Side Economics with Scott Stewart
On this episode, we discuss how Mexico became a flashpoint of the war on drugs, broader trends in American foreign policy and drug policy, as well as the evolution of synthetic drugs as the main category of illicit narcotics. Our guest is Scott Stewart, a security analyst who for years penned one of the best annual assessments of Mexico’s evolving cartels for Stratfor and has since transitioned to Torchstone Global, a private security consulting firm.
Scott has worked in the trenches of intelligence and security for 35 years and began his career in army reserve and National Gua...
2021-01-261h 01Narcotica PodcastEpisode 49: Salvia: Psychedelic Oddity with Ivan Casselman (Plus, Canada’s Emerging Psilocybin Scene)
Most people know salvia as the weird psychedelic drug at head shops that you try once, have a bizarre, uncomfortable experience and never touch it again. But there’s so much more to salvia divinorum, psychedelics and plant medicine in general. Narcotica co-host Troy Farah speaks with Dr. Ivan Casselman, from Vancouver, B.C., Canada, who has a Ph.D. in Plant Science, studying their analytical chemistry and genetics and works as the Chief Psychedelics Officer for Havn Life Sciences. We discuss all things salvia divinorum, including ethnobotany and indigenous use of this plant, its strange effects co...
2020-12-2249 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 48: Moms And Methadone with Elizabeth Brico
Is there any class of people who receive more stigma, who get more shit and abuse for using drugs, than mothers? Probably not! For whatever reason, society really looks down upon mothers who use drugs. And too often, Child Protective Services use evidence of drug use, even prescribed drugs like methadone or buprenorphine, as a pretense for seizing children from parents, even when there are no signs of abuse or neglect.
At Narcotica, we believe in safe drug use no matter who it is. On this episode, Troy, Zach and Chris talk about how stigma against drug...
2020-10-021h 06Narcotica PodcastEpisode 47: Can Harm Reduction and Cops Coexist?
Something that never gets said enough is that the drug war is racist. This is not an opinion any more than it is an opinion that the American Civil War was fought over slavery. Both were crafted by racists to serve racist agendas of controlling people based on their skin color. It is why it is more urgent than ever that we dismantle this system of oppression, the so-called war on drugs, which would be perhaps better described as simply a war on people.
In many ways, prohibition is far more harmful to people than the drugs...
2020-09-0356 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 46: Behind The Pharmacists’ Counter with Jessica Moreno
You ever wonder what the hell pharmacists even do? To laypeople, pharmacists are the gatekeepers standing between us and our drugs. But they can be, and arguably, should be, much more than that. Even though just about everyone has experience with pharmacists, some good, some really bad, the profession is still a bit of a mystery. What’s going on behind the counter? To answer this and more, Narcotica hosts Zachary Siegel, Christopher Moraff and Troy Farah talk with Jessica Moreno, a psychiatric clinical pharmacist based in Detroit, Michigan. We cover topics like why naloxone and birth control sh...
2020-08-1747 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 45: Overdose Is Tragic, Not Murder with Morgan Godvin
When Morgan Godvin was 24, she sold her best friend Justin a gram of heroin. This wasn’t out of the ordinary. Both of them often used together and hooking each other up was essentially seen as a favor, to keep one another from experiencing withdrawal sickness. But this one time proved to be fatal. Justin would later be found dead from an overdose, and Morgan was on the hook for supplying it, getting caught up in the wave of drug-induced homicide cases where prosecutors go after users, who are often friends and loved ones of the victim. Mor...
2020-07-081h 03Narcotica PodcastEpisode 44: Reimagining Public Health and Racial Justice with Dr. Ricky Bluthenthal
There are several health crises occurring around the U.S. and the world right now: overdose deaths, a pandemic, police brutality and violence… While these crises may all feel distinct one from one another, they are actually deeply entwined and can be understood through a lens of racial justice. Overdose deaths disparately impact people of color, as does Covid-19. People of color, especially Black men, find themselves on the blunt end of police brutality and excessive use of force. To talk about the theme of racial justice across public health, policing, and harm reduction, Zach and Troy we...
2020-06-2655 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 43: Russian Roulette—Life, Death and Getting High in Putin’s Backyard
The last place you’d want to be dependent on drugs, besides the Philippines, North Korea or the United States, is probably Russia. To give just one example, the Motherland has long banned the use of medication-assisted treatment, such as buprenorphine or methadone, which has made recovery next to impossible for many users. Narcotica co-host Christopher Moraff takes a deep dive into Russian drug culture with Aleksey Lakhov, the deputy director of the charitable foundation Humanitarian Action in St. Petersburg. They discuss the culture of naloxone, synthetic drug use, heroin trends, the death penalty, legality of MAT and...
2020-06-1036 minNarcotica PodcastHot Spots 1 – 3 Arizona, Iowa and Nova Scotia
Pretty much everyone on the planet is being impacted by Covid-19 right now. Harm reduction services like syringe access programs or supervised consumption sites are no exception. But for some people, these services are not just their lifeline, they’re the only healthcare they receive, period. And when hospitals and doctor’s offices are already stretched thin, it can lead to a lot of potentially harmful situations. At Narcotica, we’re introducing a new miniseries called Hot Spots, where we’re going to call up people in harm reduction across the country and ask them how coronavirus has impac...
2020-05-2955 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 42: Supervised Consumption is an Essential Service
The covid-19 crisis has exposed many weak spots in our culture and the need for radical change. It has revealed which workers are really essential—hint: it’s not executives keeping this late-stage capitalist economy afloat—and that we need to pay these workers a living wage. It has revealed that yes, healthcare is a human right and that contributing to public health is, shockingly, essential to keep everyone healthy. And perhaps most relevant to this show, the covid-19 crisis has demonstrated the utmost importance of supervised consumption sites, or places where people can use drugs under medical...
2020-05-0544 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 41: What Does It All Ketamine? with Dr. Erica Zelfand
Ketamine is one of the most versatile drugs on Earth, an amazing anesthetic that can relieve pain without the same risk of respiratory failure as opioids (nothing against them, of course.) Overwhelming evidence also suggests ketamine can rapidly reverse suicidal thoughts, making it a potent treatment for PTSD and treatment-resistant depression.
Last year, a specialized blend of ketamine called esketamine was approved by the FDA to treat depression, the first new major depression drug in more than 30 years, but its use has proven controversial. Meanwhile, dozens of clinics are popping up across North America, offering off-label use o...
2020-04-0650 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 40: Harm Reduction Amidst Pandemic with Daniel Raymond
In these uncertain times, Narcotica aims to not only give our listeners vital public health information, but also offer a sense of reassurance and community. If you’re following the social distancing guidelines, or working from home, life may feel a little extra lonely right now, and we aim to provide interviews and conversations to keep you company.
On Tuesday March 17, co-hosts Troy Farah and Zachary Siegel interviewed Daniel Raymond, policy director at the Harm Reduction Coalition. Drawing from the wisdom and of the harm reduction community, Raymond wrote a beautiful post, “Harm Reduction in the Time of C...
2020-03-1743 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 39: Pain Patients Are Still Fighting For Their Lives with Kate Nicholson
In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laid out guidelines for primary care doctors prescribing opioids to treat chronic pain. Essentially, these guidelines stated that opioids should not be the first line treatment for pain, and that other methods should be tried first. Which is perfectly sensible.
But when it came to dosing and duration, these guidelines — not laws — guidelines, started to become widely misinterpreted. We don’t need to get in the weeds of morphine milligram equivalents here, but what wound up happening across the country is that doctors, medical boards, and even legislators took the gu...
2020-03-1448 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 38: Dead People Don’t Recover — The Importance of Safe Supply with Mark Tyndall
Public officials have been yelling from the rooftops that there’s an opioid epidemic. Yes, an obscene number of people are dying from overdoses, many of which involve opioids. But they’re not quite right. Researchers who really get what’s going on describe what’s happening to the U.S. drug supply over the last few years as a mass poisoning. Were it not for potent fentanyl analogues being sold in heroin markets, many, many lives would be spared.
That’s where the concept of a safe drug supply comes in. Troy and Zach speak with Dr. Mark Ty...
2020-02-2849 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 37: Covering Culture and Drugs with Substance with Kate Knibbs
It’s difficult to write about drugs without being steeped and schooled in the discourse. Cultural tropes and conventional wisdom dominates the space. Drugs are anthropomorphized as the enemy. People who use drugs are described as manipulative and selfish, unless, of course, they’re “clean.” Often there is little empirical research cited and the same old voices are quoted saying the same old thing. Writers may think they’re being empathetic when really they’re reinforcing stigma, criminalization, and the very narratives that propel dangerous policy in the first place.
At Narcotica, we look out for people who do things...
2020-02-201h 07Narcotica PodcastEpisode 36: Moral Hazards and Naloxone, A Toxicologist’s Perspective with Ryan Marino
An opioid overdose can be a terrifying experience. When too much of a drug like heroin or fentanyl floods the brain, it can cause your breathing to stop. Sometimes you wake up, sometimes you don’t. But there’s a miraculous drug called naloxone or brand name Narcan that can reverse an opioid overdose and save your life.
Today’s guest is Ryan Marino, an emergency room physician and medical toxicologist at Cleveland University Hospitals. We discuss moral hazards about naloxone, one of the most important drugs on the planet, but also buprenorphine, competitive antagonists for benzos and stimulant...
2020-02-1349 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 35: Holding Space — The Values of Trip Sitting with Michelle Janikian
Magic mushrooms are having a bit of a moment. Some scientists are bending over backgrounds investing in psilocybin research, which is getting huge accolades from the FDA, while a decriminalization movement is slowly sweeping the nation. At least two towns have made psilocybin arrests the cops’ lowest priority.
But how do you prevent a mushroom trip from going sour? In this episode with author Michelle Janikian we enter the world of tripsitting, or watching over someone while they take powerful psychedelic drugs, in this case psilocybin mushrooms. Janikian is the author of the new book, “YOUR PSILOCYBIN MUSH...
2020-01-201h 00Narcotica PodcastEpisode 34: “Inside the Bloody War on Drugs” with Antony Lowenstein
President Richard Nixon ignited the War on Drugs in 1971 by declaring drugs “public enemy No. 1.” Over the ensuing decades, the U.S. has turned the Drug War into a vital feature of its vast empire, exporting a drug policy of militant enforcement and harsh criminalization in Mexico, Latin America, South America, and beyond. Exactly how this war plays out––its victims, villains, and profiteers––is the subject of journalist Antony Lowenstein’s vivid new book, “Pills, Powder, and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs.” On Today’s episode, co-hosts Troy Farah and Zachary Siegel interview Lowenstein about what he saw on his journe...
2019-12-161h 09Narcotica PodcastEpisode 33: Party and Play—An Intro to Chemsex with David Stuart
Aphrodisiacs are powerfully attractive for a reason. Sex is, after all, crucial to the survival of our species and it feels fucking amazing, so using chemicals that can make sex last longer, feel better or otherwise enhance the act is going to be like candy to a bunch of horny primates. But the term chemsex—using drugs, or chemical enhancement, to prolong or alter sexual experiences—is actually specific to the gay community, or men who have sex with men. Drugs used have included methamphetamine, Viagra or sildenafil, cocaine, the anesthetic GHB, mephedrone (also known as ‘bath salts...
2019-11-2458 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 32: How Synthetic Drugs Conquered the Globe with Ben Westoff
The single biggest driver of the overdose crisis today is not oxycodone or heroin: It’s fentanyl. Drug trends around the world are always in flux, and a wide-range of nebulous supply-and-demand factors are always in play. But according to “Fentanyl, Inc.,” a sprawling investigation into the global supply of illicit fentanyl by journalist Ben Westhoff, the advent of fentanyl is not driven by user-demand.
Rather, the prevalence of illicit fentanyl, largely produced in China, is part of a larger material history involving free trade, technology, and a web of complex geopolitics. On today’s show, co-host Zachary...
2019-10-3153 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 31: Supervised Consumption: Narcotica Breaks Down Safehouse Ruling with Av Gutman
Safehouse is safe, for now. On Wednesday Oct. 2, a federal judge in Philadelphia ruled that a supervised injection site proposed by the nonprofit Safehouse would not violate a provision of the Controlled Substances Act, known as the “Crack House” statute, authored by none other than Democratic presidential frontrunner, Joe Biden. On today’s episode, hosts Troy, Chris, and Zach are joined by Philadelphia Inquirer’s Abraham Gutman. Gutman has been cranking out fiery editorials in support of harm reduction, criminal justice reform, and tons of other topics for Philly’s biggest newspaper. He breaks down the complicated legal, poli...
2019-10-2100 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 30: Getting Wrecked with Dr. Kim Sue
Doctors are often blamed for prescribing America into the opioid crisis. Their reckless actions, relying on opioids to relieve just about every morsel of pain, ignited the deadliest overdose crisis in history, so we’re told. Of course, the narrative around doctors is much more complex than that.
But one truth is inescapable: Without doctors prescribing methadone and buprenorphine, and taking care of some of the most marginalized people in the health care system, like incarcerated women, there is no end to the crisis in sight. Meet Dr. Kimberly Sue, the medical director of the Harm Reduction Co...
2019-10-0457 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode XXIX: Darth Vaper The Panic Strikes Back
via New York Department of Health/Troy Farah
By now you might be wondering whether your vape pen has acquired a taste for human blood. There have been several deaths and hundreds of cases of “mysterious lung illnesses” traced back to various “vaping products,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since that sentence is incredibly vague and next to useless, we decided to bring Amelia Ruby Howard, a sociologist who studies science and technology, on the show to clear the air and tell us what’s up. Amelia begins by spelling out exactly what kind of products a...
2019-09-1856 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 28: Antibiotic Resistance and Doping at the Olympics with Mike Pearl
Antibiotic resistance and doping at the Olympics are two pretty unrelated ideas, but they’re both covered in the new book ‘The Day It Finally Happens’ by author and journalist Mike Pearl, who sat down in Narcotica co-host Troy Farah’s kitchen.
The book is kind of exploring the future in an interesting way, taking a lot of these wild, worst case scenarios, like what happens when the last fish in the ocean dies or truly bizarre, hypothetical situations, like what if a real life Jurassic Park opens. It breaks down this potential future using facts and experts...
2019-09-171h 12Narcotica PodcastEpisode 27: What’s the Most Dangerous Drug?
Narcotica co-host Zachary Siegel was in Los Angeles for a conference on depicting drug use in Hollywood films and TV shows, so co-host Troy Farah trudged down from the High Desert and they recorded an episode in a hotel room. Despite doing Narcotica for well over a year, the pair hadn’t met in person before. (Chris Moraff couldn’t make this episode.) Picking an impromptu topic, they decided to riff on a recent USA Today article titled “The 25 most dangerous drugs.”
So… what is the most dangerous drug? Alcohol? Carfentanil? Acetaminophen? And what is with the obsession...
2019-09-071h 31Narcotica PodcastEpisode 26: Housing As Harm Reduction
Sarn is a Pathway to Housing participant in Philadelphia via Chris Moraff
The Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia is often described as “ground zero” in the overdose crisis. The New York Times Magazine gave Kensington’s open air drug market the dubious title, “The Walmart of Heroin.” Of course, if you take a tour of Kensington without a DEA agent nearby, you might meet someone like Sarn, who after years of unstable housing and chaotic drug use, now has his own place to live. Operating from a Housing First model, organizations like Pathways to Housing are fighting the tides of endemic po...
2019-08-1249 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 25: Banning Kratom Will Escalate the Opioid Overdose Crisis with Walter Prozialeck
Kratom, a strange plant from Southeast Asia has become one of the most controversial herbs in the United States. In this episode, Troy Farah breaks down the risks and potential benefits of this unique tree and why banning it would likely lead to a devastating increase in deaths in the opioid overdose crisis with Walter Prozialeck, a pharmacology professor at Midwestern University, who has a long-standing interest in herbal medicine, including marijuana and kratom. Topics discussed on this episode, recorded June 26, include why people use kratom, the pharmacokinetics of kratom alkaloids including actual overdose potential, cicadas infected with psilocybin-producing...
2019-07-3047 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 24: How To Get Abortion Pills Feat. Lynn Paltrow and Francine Coeytaux
What does abortion access have to do with the war on drugs? EVERYTHING. On this episode, we talk about some of the most controversial drugs of them all, drugs that are often overlooked in the debate about reforming drug policy: abortifacients, drugs that induce miscarriage, ending pregnancies. Specifically, misoprostol and mifepristone. We speak with Lynn Paltrow, the founder and executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women and Francine Coeytaux co-founder of Plan C Pills, co-founder of the Pro-Choice Alliance for Responsible Research, and a founder of the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health.
If you need to...
2019-07-1458 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 23: Bring Back Prescription Heroin! with Travis Lupick
With perhaps the exception of fentanyl, no drug is seen as more dangerous or controversial than heroin. But when you look at decades of medical literature, it’s clear that heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine, is just another opioid, and it has a place in medicine. On this episode, Troy Farah and Zachary Siegel discuss the controversial idea of prescription heroin with Canadian journalist Travis Lupick, author of Fighting for Space.
You can follow Travis Lupick @tlupick Twitter here.
Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spoti...
2019-07-0342 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 22: Changing the Narrative with Maia Szalavitz and Leo Beletsky
On this episode Narcotica highlights a new project from the Health in Justice Action Lab at Northeastern University called Changing The Narrative, which aims to correct flawed narratives about drugs, debunked myths, old tropes, and stigmatizing language in mainstream media. It includes a directory of expert sources that journalists can contact for a quote, or organizations looking for panelists or speakers, helping raise the standards for communication in this area.Changing the Narrative is spearheaded by Maia Szalavitz, a drug policy reporter and author of the book “Unbroken Brain” and Leo Beletsky, Professor of Law and Health Scie...
2019-06-2452 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 21: Ethically Documenting Drug Use Activism with Nigel Brunsdon
Sometimes, you’ll be reading a great piece on the drug overdose crisis that is just ruined by a crappy stock image of a gigantic syringe and a mountain of what is obviously flour or someone nodding out on the sidewalk. On this episode, Narcotica explores what accurate, tactful drug imagery should look like.
The team speaks with Nigel Brunsdon, the official/unofficial photographer of the modern day harm reduction movement, who is joining us via from the UK. He has shadowed the Chicago Recovery Alliance, Harm Reduction International, and many others on the front lines of th...
2019-06-1341 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 20: The Pitfalls of Mainstream Harm Reduction with Eliza Wheeler
via Troy Farah
In this episode, Chris and Zach sit down with Eliza Wheeler of the Harm Reduction Coalition in San Francisco. Wheeler has been working in harm reduction, distributing syringes and naloxone directly to people who use drugs, for over two decades. She’s seen a lot of progress in her lifetime. But as harm reduction goes mainstream, Wheeler sees how easily the bedrock values and principles of the movement can be compromised and coopted by political forces. Zach, Chris, and Eliza talk about how funds for naloxone get in the wrong hands, how syringe exchanges deal wi...
2019-05-3155 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 19: Debunking Bupe Diversion Myths with Molly Doernberg
If you ask many, many people whose lives have been upended by opioids, buprenorphine is a life saver. It can literally cut the risk of a fatal overdose by half or more in folks who have an opioid addiction. Also known as Subutex or Suboxone, buprenorphine is one of the three FDA approved medications to treat what’s formally known as opioid use disorder. It’s a partial agonist at opioid receptors, relieving cravings but with far less risk for overdose than other opioids like heroin, which are full agonists.
Zachary Siegel, Troy Farah and Christopher Moraff speak with...
2019-05-1235 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 18: Drug User Unions – The Rebirth of Harm Reduction with Jess Tilley and Albie Park
In this episode, Zach and Troy interview two veteran harm reduction activists: Jess Tilley and Albie Park. Jess and Albie have organized on behalf of drug users for decades, building community to ensure that no one has to die a preventable overdose death. You’ll learn about how they met, how they work, and what policies and ideas they are currently prioritizing. You’ll also hear about what they envision for the future of harm reduction in the midst of, in Jess’s words, an “overdose apocalypse.” Zach and Troy mostly let them do the talking. Enjoy.
Harm Reduc...
2019-05-071h 03Narcotica PodcastEpisode 17: Using DMT To Contact Aliens with Andrew Gallimore
Psychedelic drugs are weird, but DMT has to be one of the weirdest. Best known as the principle psychoactive ingredient in ayahuasca, this drug, N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, occurs naturally in many plants and animals. Troy Farah interviews Andrew Gallimore, a computational neurobiologist, pharmacologist and DMT enthusiast, and author of the new book ‘Alien Information Theory.’ With a healthy dose of skepticism, they discuss hyperspace realms and building a machine that makes DMT trips last for hours on end.
DMT is commonly called the quote ’Spirit molecule’ because while tons of psychedelics offer spiritual insight, DMT is in a category...
2019-04-2753 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 16: The Crew Interviews the Crackdown’s Garth Mullins
Canada’s Downtown Eastside in Vancouver is known around the world as a city of pain and trauma. That’s not the whole story. Vancouver has produced trailblazing harm reduction activists and scholars who have changed the fabric of drug user health care. The Crackdown is a podcast that features some of the bravest activists who are pushing the envelope in drug policy. In this episode, Chris, Troy, and Zach interview Garth Mullins, host of The Crackdown, about what spawned the show, the differences between American and Canadian drug policy, and what journalism looks like when it is owned and...
2019-04-1251 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 15: Accurate, Compassionate Drug Journalism with Filter Magazine
Mainstream media doesn’t really ‘get’ drugs, but there’s one place that has consistently gotten it right: Filter Magazine. Narcotica hosts Christopher Moraff, Zachary Siegel and Troy Farah talk with Filter’s co-founder and editor-in-chief Will Godfrey. This conversation covers a lot of ground on media literacy and compassionate reporting on drug use.
Full disclosure: all three of us at Narcotica have worked with Godfrey in some way. But we completely support the work that Filter is doing, which is what we hope Narcotica accomplishes: responsible, scientific, and compassionate reporting on drugs.
Learn more about F...
2019-04-0354 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 14: Harm Reduction Dies in Darkness—Jeff Deeney
Few would disagree with the notion that the United States government has dropped the ball on responding to the opioid crisis, particularly the threat posed by illicitly manufactured fentanyl in the heroin supply. That’s the basis of a new piece called “The Fentanyl Failure,” a Washington Post investigation into the Obama Administration. Only, there’s just one problem: the sources used by the Washington Post are angry drug warriors and zealous prosecutors who are mad that Obama didn’t let them lock up enough dealers. In this episode of Narcotica, co-host Zachary Siegel and special guest Jeff Deeney deconstruc...
2019-03-1830 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 13: Beyond Borders – “Drug War Capitalism”
For the last installation of Narcotica’s Beyond Border series, Zachary Siegel interviews Dawn Paley, journalist and author of “Drug War Capitalism.” Paley’s scholarship and research situates paramilitarized drug violence in countries from Colombia to Honduras in historical, political, and economic context. On the show she discusses how the War on Drugs benefits big businesses across the hemisphere. Paley has reported about the War on Drugs from Mexico, South America, and Central America for The Nation Magazine, and recently finished her Ph.D. from the Autonomous University of Puebla in Mexico.
2019-03-0855 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 12: Beyond Borders — “El Chapo” and the Mexican Fentanyl Pipeline with Keegan Hamilton
This week Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán was convicted by the U.S. government. Guzman rose to prominence in the Sinaloa Federation drug trafficking organization, where he allegedly became the most prolific and successful drug profiteer in history.
From 2008 until his second capture in 2014, Guzman’s pharmaceutical manufacturing giant, if you will, was the primary supplier of illicit marijuana, heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States.
During Guzman’s rein, Mexico’s drug trafficking gangs experienced a tenuous but measurable peace, known among academics as Pax Sinaloa. But now that a head of the hydra has been sev...
2019-02-1333 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 11: Beyond Borders — How the U.S. Exports Dangerous Drug Policy with Sanho Tree
America practically invented prohibition, or at least popularized it to the point where nearly every country models itself after U.S. drug policy. The results have been nothing short of disastrous. Troy Farah talks with foreign policy expert Sanho Tree about how the ‘Land of the Free’ have exported draconian drug laws, enslaving the rest of the planet. This discussion covers poppy fields in Afghanistan, Central American migrants fleeing gangs, the Bolivian model for cocaine regulation, death squads in the Philippines and how Trump’s wall is just more bad drug policy.
Follow Sanho Tree on...
2019-02-0545 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 10: Did The FDA Just Say Kratom Is Illegal?For the last several years there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding a drug called kratom, a plant from Southeast Asia that is used by millions of Americans to relieve pain and anxiety. The federal government has said this drug has high potential for abuse and has been quietly waging a war against kratom, leaving many people to wonder when, not if, it will be banned. That day seems to be today: Tuesday, November 27 2018.
A new announcement by the Food and Drug Administration today says “Kratom is not legally marketed in the U.S. as a drug...
2018-11-2823 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 9: Speed Up, Slow Down Pt. 3 — The Cocaine Fentanyl BluesFor more than a century, Americans have had a love-hate relationship with cocaine. Once viewed as a cure-all tonic for everything from hemorrhoids to morphine addiction, the drug has inspired infamous rock songs and brought people to their knees.
In the third and final segment of Narcotica’s ‘Speed Up, Slow Down’ series on stimulants, reporter Christopher Moraff examines the strange and perplexing history of cocaine and it’s latest demonization—fentanyl adulteration. He speaks with toxicologist Kevin Shanks, Dennis Cauchon of Harm Reduction Ohio and fentanyl test strip guru Tino Fuentes.
Follow Narcotica on Facebook...
2018-11-2029 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 8: Collateral Damage—Patients Fight BackWith the midterms just days away, Zach, Chris and Troy explore America’s newest marginalized political constituency—millions of people with chronic pain or illness that have been ground under the wheel of American opioid policy. We speak with Lauren DeLuca, President of Chronic Illness Advocacy & Awareness Group about how we got here and how the sickest Americans can we come one of the strongest political forces in coming years.
Listen HERE
Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated!
Photo credit: K-State Research and Extension, edit by T...
2018-11-0241 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 7: Drug War Déjà VuNarcotica co-host Zachary Siegel moderated a panel at the 12th National Harm Reduction Conference in New Orleans. The panel was the brainchild of the Drug Policy Alliance’s Michael Collins, titled: Drug War Déjà Vu: How harm reductionists can push back against drug-induced homicide laws, harsh fentanyl penalties, and the further demonization of drug users.” Panelists include Lindsay LaSalle (Drug Policy Alliance), Jasmine Tyler (Human Rights Watch), William Miller Jr. (BMore Power), and Dan Ciccarone (UCSF).
Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated!
Learn more about HRC at: ht...
2018-10-241h 30Narcotica PodcastEpisode 6: Speed Up, Slow Down Pt. 2 — Myth Evolution: From Crack Kids to Addicted Babies
https://narcocast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/narcotica-SUSD-troy_mixdown.mp3
In the ’80s, a rampant fear of “crack babies” permeated the mainstream media. But the claims of kids deformed due to crack cocaine turned out to be bullshit. Troy Farah reports on how this urban legend originated, and how it’s morphed into another false narrative: the addicted baby myth. Plus, we examine why pregnant drug users face so much greater stigma than others. We speak with Dr. Carl Hart, a neuroscientist and the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Columbia University, as well as Cherisse Scott, founder of Siste...
2018-10-1815 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 5: Speed Up, Slow Down Pt. 1https://narcocast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Ep5.1-GoSlow_mixdown.mp3
With all the focus on opioids, Narcotica has decided to launch a series on stimulants called “Speed Up, Slow Down.” In the first installment, Zachary Siegel takes a critical look at how media depicts meth and cocaine use. He interviews two users about how stimulants actually help them function. Then, he talks to Sheila Vakharia from the Drug Policy Alliance about harm reduction, and Kat Humphries from the Harm Reduction Action Center about her “Methamphetazine” that features art from Denver stimulant users.
Download link for the zine.
2018-10-1124 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 4: Supervised Consumption Breaks Rod Rosenstein’s Brainhttps://narcocast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Injection-Sites-Mixdown-NEW.mp3
In response to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s outrageous supervised consumption op-ed in the New York Times, the Narcotica team speaks with Laura Thomas, of the Drug Policy Alliance, who broke down the obstacles harm reduction workers face in opening a site in the United States. Thomas, who is deputy state director at DPA, has been championing supervised consumption sites for over a decade, because she knows what the data says: SCS save lives.
But how long until we see a facility in the U.S.? We di...
2018-09-1639 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 3: Remembering Dan Bigg, Naloxone Renegadehttps://narcocast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Bigg-Interview-Episode-Narcotica.mp3
Dan Bigg, activist, visionary, and harm reduction pioneer, died on Tuesday, August 21, 2018. In this episode, Zach Siegel interviews journalist Max Blau, who has been researching the history of naloxone, about Bigg’s radical legacy.
You can follow Max on Twitter @MaxBlau
Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and support us on Patreon. Help keep this podcast ad-free! Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us! Rate us! And thanks for your support!
If you liked this...
2018-09-0837 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 2: Anthony Bourdain, Suicide and the Myth of Cross Addictionhttps://narcocast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Bourdain-6.23.18.mp3
*CW: Suicide is discussed on this episode.*
Narcotica heard that members of the addiction recovery community were wildly speculating about whether or not drinking played a role in Anthony Bourdain’s suicide. Not only do we think that speaking for someone who cannot speak for themselves—especially someone like Bourdain, who was an incredibly empathetic human being and storyteller—is a shitty thing to do. But to do it without any shred of evidence or rigor, makes it all even worse. In this episode, more commentary than radio magazi...
2018-06-2719 minNarcotica PodcastEpisode 1: Opioid of the Masseshttps://narcocast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Narcotica-Episode-1.mp3
Episode 1 of Narcotica is here! In the first segment Zachary Siegel does some mythbusting around overdosing by touching fentanyl; Troy Farah gives a nuanced take on what’s driving the overdose crisis; and Christoper Moraff talks with experts and drug users about the disease-model of addiction.
Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us!
If you liked this episode, here are others you might enjoy:
Epis...
2018-05-2457 min
A Year of ListeningThe Opioid/Overdose Crisis with Christopher MoraffOn today's episode Colleen sat down with Christopher Moraff, a Philadelphia based reporter to discuss the opioid crisis in our country and what Chris has learned from years of reporting on this issue.
2018-02-0157 min