The Dr. Junkie Show

Emanuel Sferios, host of the podcasts Drug Positive and Drug Nonsense joins me to talk about US drug policy, ending the war on drugs, MDMA therapy, Dance Safe, Fentanyl(s), test strips, stigma & stereotype, and Emanuel's theory that QAnon is a government psyop. To get your street drugs tested for fentanyl(s) and other adulterants, see DrugsData.org and check out Dance Safe either at their...

In this episode I sit down with my editor, Laura Hull.  We talk about how parents should talk to kids about drugs, and we begin a 2-part discussion about Ketamine Treatment.  We also discuss Judge Holmes (episode 21), class privilege, Systems Perspective, stereotypes about drug use(rs), George Floyd's murder, Andrew Brown's shooting, Kurt Cobain's suicide (or was it?), Jimi Hendrix&...

Every morning for around half a decade in the early 2000s, I would make my way to the Methadone Maintenance Therapy (MMT) clinic in Kansas City, Missouri.  For me and millions of others, methadone, Suboxone (Buprenorphine), Vivitrol and heroin maintenance therapy are  invaluable to our success in life.  Support the show

Tupac Shakur once said the police are "the biggest gang in New York City." He was right. They are actually the biggest gang in the country.  That might not be a bad thing (as Tupac also pointed out). There are ways to make sure that "gang" has society's best interests in mind, and that individual actions conform to that goal. Until we update the system which currently exis...

There are 2 ways for the war on drugs to end. Both have already been attempted in countries across the globe. In Portugal, decriminalization has reduced the amount of heroin-addicted people by 75%. In the Philippians, where up to 25,000 drug users and dealers have been murdered by police and state assassins since 2016, there are new dealers and users every day to replace those gunned down by polic...

Ghost Dope: you can't touch it, you can't smoke it, and you can't weigh it. But it sent Chris Trigg to prison for 30 years.  In this episode I share the story of Chris Trigg, who remains in prison, serving time for a conviction for drugs which never existed. My Prison, Communication & Social Justice Spring, 2021 class joins me to share Chris's story.  Support the show

In this episode, I talk about the trial of Derek Chauvin, and the defense's ironic argument that the system is at fault. Derek was following his training, and he actually could have used more force than he did, according one defense witness. All of this feels eerily familiar. For decades, "Reality" TV shows like COPS have shown us spectacles of law enforcement wherein a resisting su...

Brandon Stickney was a successful journalist when he handed one of his friends a pill. But that pill was a Suboxone (buprenorphine), so when his friend told on him, Brandon wound up in prison for 19 months. Brandon's latest book, The  Five People You'll Meet in Prison, is part memoir, part activism, and all indictment of a system which locks people up for using drugs, then does everythin...

Free will is the underlying principle of our criminal "justice" system. Without the ability to blame people for their "crimes," we would be forced to focus on prevention instead of revenge, restoration instead of retribution.  But free will is not a thing. The illusion of free will isn't even a thing. In this episode, I will take a stab at explaining why so many people sti...

In 1971, Dr. Phillip Zimbardo gathered a group of undergraduate students and convinced them that they were not allowed to leave the basement of the Stanford Psychology Department. Half of the group played the role of guards, while the other half became prisoners for what was supposed to be a 14-day experiment.  What followed was six days of legitimized abuse, and fifty years of legitimized researc...

Once WWII ended, the "Western World" got to work figuring out what had happened. But (as usual), we had no interest taking any blame or self reflecting on our own systems of power. Researchers who understood how much we hate to point the finger at ourselves designed study after study meant to reveal the thing or things which caused otherwise good people to do horrible things.  In this ep...

Have you ever felt like the news and TV programs are reinforcing racist stereotypes? Have you ever seen a drug dealer or a thief on television and known they were a bad guy before they did anything illegal?  Dr. Travis Dixon's work reveals the statistical cause of that feeling. The news, television and movies are indeed misrepresenting the facts about crime and criminal justice, showing us fa...

Author Rebecca Traister joins me to talk about her book, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger. We talk about feminism, cancel-culture (and accountability), the Capitol raid, representation, patriarchy, stereotypes, and how women have been vital to social movement in the US throughout history (even though their stories are often overshadowed by men). We also discuss methods o...

Between 1999 and 2021 the US saw a massive increase in opioid (heroin, fentanyl, morphine, etc.) overdose deaths. The result: we are now in the midst of a so-called “opioid epidemic.” But what does that mean? How should the government respond? And how can we change it?  It turns out the CDC's overdose death counts are exaggerated, and the inaccuracies have fueled a massive and never ending wa...

Join me for a brief history of cocaine, an overview of the biopharmacology, and roadmap for how to undo the damage done by the war on drugs.  Crack cocaine is just cocaine. The only difference is it can be smoked, which means it kicks in harder and wears off faster. And because of that, it can also be sold in small doses. These differences, which aren't differences, have been used to defend a...

Fair warning: this episode is philosophical and theological, and I swerve a bit out of my lane to argue that we should think of cultish-behavior, like engagement with conspiracy theories and evidence-free logic, as an addiction.  Thinking about QAnon, or Far-Right Trumpism (or Far-Left conspiracy theories) as addictions allows us to better understand both addiction and the folks who are engaging i...

Dr. Mia Fischer joins me to talk about systems of power, and the way that they refuse to change, even when they appear to do so. Our military has recently incorporated, then unincorporated, then reincorporated openly-trans folks. Our prisons often house incarcerated people in the wrong facilities based on their assigned birth gender.  The more things change, the more they stay the same. Any good h...

Most of what we know about addiction is wrong. It isn't chemical hooks or a weak mind. Our survival depends on our ability to do the things that eventually lead to addiction when they get out of control. We become sensitized to things we find exciting or dangerous – things that we need to notice right away to avoid injury – and we become tolerant to things we find comforting and safe  – thing...

When I was court-ordered to attend a 12-step program back in 2003, I knew within a meeting or two that it wasn't for me. The entire program is based on religion, on finding and trusting your so-called "higher power." The only requirement–a desire to stop using drugs or alcohol–wasn't something I was willing to lie about. And most importantly, it was based on the disease model....

The War on Drugs is designed to grow forever. But now that the warriors have arrested us into a crisis, and killed us into an overdose catastrophe, they are running out of targets to fund their war. So they cooked up a solution: sue the pharmacies into cutting off opioid users so that we head to the streets, then arrest the new dealers that pop up to supply the new market, and confiscate their pro...

As 2020 comes to a close and COVID rages on, we are all stressed out, and many of us are taking more drugs than we were before this pandemic began. That is normal. It is not sinful. It is not a sign of weakness. It would be weird if we weren't.  But if we don't talk about it, we will be in trouble when this lockdown ends in a few months. The shame that we all feel is the reason we aren&a...

HBOs hit series Euphoria is on track for a Blockbuster second season. But amongst the hyperviolent scenes and transphobic terrorism, there is a story about addiction that is both wrong and dangerous. Join me for a critical review of Season 1 and Special Episode 1.  Support the show

Media teaches us facts about our world. And most of the time we don't even notice. We learn that elevators have roof hatches and that most of Earth's oxygen comes from the rain forests, along with a bunch of other TV lies, and we don't even realize we have learned these things (incorrectly).  Dr. Bill Yousman joins me to discuss media, prison, and the war on drugs. We also talk abou...

What is meditation? Why does an image search bring up thousands of cross-legged sun-gazers? Dr. Jeni Hunniecutt joins me to discuss meditation, mindfulness, and overall quality of life. We discuss types of meditation, how to begin, why to start, and why it can be so valuable to experience Being instead of always Doing .  Support the show

What is Whiteness? Why does it feel like such a scary word? And what does it have to do with the War on Drugs?  Dawn-Marie McIntosh joins me for a conversation about power. The United States was built upon the institution of White Supremacy, but the slavery and murder of black folks was eventually replaced by a system of segregation much more insidious than white supremacy. Whiteness is the Jim Cr...