Policy & Law

Columbia neuroscientist argues that responsible adult drug use is possible and that prohibition infringes on personal liberty. Draws on pharmacology, personal experience, and policy analysis.

Pollan examines three plant-derived psychoactives — opium, caffeine, and mescaline — exploring how each substance is culturally framed and regulated.

Netflix docuseries in which a former CIA analyst follows the economics of six drug markets — cannabis, cocaine, synthetics, opioids, meth, and heroin. Focuses on supply chains and economic incentives.

Biography of the CIA chemist who ran MK-Ultra. Documents the agency's LSD experiments on unwitting subjects, connecting Cold War paranoia to the origins of drug prohibition.

Investigative account of the American opioid epidemic, tracing the pipeline from Purdue Pharma's marketing of OxyContin through rural addiction and death. Documents corporate malfeasance and regulatory failure.

Accessible explainer on the UK's 2016 Psychoactive Substances Act and its broad, arguably unenforceable, ban on anything that affects mental functioning.

Animated explainer covering the origins and consequences of the war on drugs. Clear, data-driven, and accessible to audiences unfamiliar with the subject.

Investigative journalism tracing how OxyContin marketing and black tar heroin distribution converged to create the American opioid crisis. Documents the roles of pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and drug trafficking networks.

Two-part investigative feature on Ross Ulbricht and the Silk Road darknet marketplace. Documents how cryptomarkets changed drug distribution and the law enforcement response.

Journalistic investigation of online hidden services including cryptomarkets. Covers how darknet drug markets operate, their harm reduction features (reviews, testing), and law enforcement challenges.

Memoir and scientific argument from the first tenured Black professor of sciences at Columbia. Challenges myths about crack cocaine and drug addiction using both personal narrative and controlled research data.

Argues that the US criminal justice system, driven heavily by drug enforcement, functions as a system of racial control. Documents how drug laws are selectively enforced along racial lines.

Detailed policy blueprint for legally regulating currently illegal drugs. Covers licensing models, production controls, sales frameworks, and transition planning.

White paper analyzing Portugal's 2001 decriminalization of personal drug possession. Documents reductions in HIV transmission, overdose deaths, and drug-related incarceration.

The Rat Park researcher's full argument: that addiction is primarily a response to social dislocation, not a property of substances. Applies this framework to globalization and modernity.

Global history of psychoactive commerce — how caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, opium, cannabis, and coca became entangled with colonialism, capitalism, and state power.

Sweeping history of drug use and drug control from antiquity through the 20th century. Argues that prohibition has consistently failed on its own terms.

Investigative history of cocaine covering its medical origins, the crack epidemic, the Colombia trade, and the CIA's involvement. Draws on extensive interviews and FOIA documents.

Investigative history covering LSD from CIA experiments through the counterculture to its prohibition. Draws on FOIA documents, interviews, and archival research.

Leading US drug policy reform organization. Extensive resource library covering decriminalization, legalization models, racial justice, and sentencing reform.

Annual reports from the UN body overseeing international drug control treaties. Primary source for understanding how the global prohibition framework operates.

Reports from a commission of former heads of state, UN officials, and business leaders calling for fundamental reform of global drug policy. Represents elite institutional critique of prohibition.

Global advocacy organization for harm reduction. Publishes the Global State of Harm Reduction report and works on drug policy reform at the UN level.

The organization that funded and coordinated MDMA-assisted therapy through FDA clinical trials. Extensive research archive, policy documents, and educational materials.

Podcast hosted by David Nutt, former chair of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Covers drug policy, psychedelic research, and the neuroscience of substance use.