Episode 95: Behind the Speedboat Dope Bombings with Ioan Grillo
As we’ve said hundreds of times on Narcotica, the drug war is a war on people used to advance some of the worst atrocities in history. Drugs...
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Narcotica Podcast
A podcast about the war on drugs and the people caught in the middle, brought to you by dedicated science and drug policy journalists Christopher Moraff, Zachary Siegel, and Troy Farah.
Episodes
20 of 97 episodes
Episode 94: The AI Dystopia Acid Test with Douglas Rushkoff
The internet and drugs are deeply intertwined in a way that isn’t glib or always obvious. Being online is a deeply conscious experience that...
Episode 93: Veterans’ Harm Reduction Battle with Beth Dinges
Despite all the nationalism in our country, veterans are too often seen as expendable. Drug use in the military is as common as any other as...
Episode 92: The Drug War’s Invisible Casualties with Sheila Vakharia
Overdose 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 i...
Episode 91: Drug Surveillance Won’t Stop at Opioids with Liz Chiarello
Opioids are some of the best drugs ever invented. News flash! But that’s not something you’ll hear from the mainstream media anymore. No, th...
Episode 90: Navigating Shifting Chemical Landscapes with Claire Zagorski
The 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 ch...
Episode 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...
Episode 88: Helping Harm Reduction Flourish with Joy Rucker
Harm 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 w...
Episode 87: Drug Testing Equals Empowerment with Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta and Charlton Roverson
On 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 o...
Bonus Episode: When Nothing Changes Nothing Changes from Naturally Noncompliant
Narcotica and Narcomedia are proud to share an exciting new sibling podcast, Naturally Noncompliant, which is about people who stand in line...
Episode 86: Why Naloxone Still Matters with Nancy D. Campbell
Naloxone is a miracle drug. Calling any drug a miracle can be problematic, but admittedly there are a few of them, in my opinion: penicillin...
Episode 85: “Narcoterrorism” is just another forever war lie with Oswaldo Zavala
If you only get your international drug policy history from Netflix, you might think that the drug traffickers in Mexico are a smart, coordi...
Episode 84: How Drug Seizures Damage Public Health with Drs. Bradley Ray, Jennifer J. Carroll and Brandon del Pozo
Like some kind of perverse fishing expedition, we’re all familiar with the drug warriors’ favorite form of theater: the drug bust. Every pol...
Episode 83: The Parents Who Oppose The War on Drugs with Tamara Olt and Gretchen Bergman
The War on (People who Use) Drugs has claimed over a million victims in the last two decades, every fatal overdose representing deep policy...
Episode 82: Drug War Activism and the Future of Harm Reduction with Louise Vincent
The Drug War is more brutal than ever. Overdose deaths are still shattering records, there’s talk of war with the cartels, increased penalti...
Episode 81: Harm Reduction Against the Prison-Industrial Complex
Harm reduction is an imperfect philosophy that serves as the only wedge between prohibition and what we all really want, which is a healthy,...
Episode 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 — n...
Episode 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. Stereo...
Episode 78: Drug Use in a Post-Roe World with Dinah Ortiz
A future where abortion drugs like mifepristone and misoprostol are trafficked just like fentanyl or methamphetamine or where birth control...
Episode 77: Harm Production — The Hazards of Drug Courts with Dave Lucas
The United States sure loves to cage people. Incarceration statistics can be shocking, but they can be cited so often that they can lose the...