BOOKS
Addiction, Inc: Medication-Assisted Treatment and America’s Forgotten War on Drugs was released by the University of Chicago Press in April 2026. It won a J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award in 2021, a Robert B. Silvers Work in Progress Award in 2022, and a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant in 2022.
Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America was released by Basic Books in December 2017. Today it’s considered a foundational text on marijuana’s history in the U.S.
SUBSTACK
SELECT ARTICLES
“DEA rescheduling hearings end. What’s next?” Weed Week News, July 16, 2026
“Rescheduling hearing week two: The DEA’s missing defense,” Weed Week News, July 9, 2026
“Rescheduling hearings week one: The doctor and the DEA,” Weed Week News, July 2, 2026
“The rescheduling hearings: What to expect,” Weed Week News, June 18, 2026
“Final Installment: Dan Baum Should Have Known Better, Part IV,” History on Drugs, June 21, 2026
“Dan Baum Should Have Known Better, Part III,” History on Drugs, June 20, 2026
“Dan Baum Should Have Known Better, Part II,” History on Drugs, June 19, 2026
“Dan Baum Should Have Known Better,” History on Drugs, June 18, 2026
“Americans condemned Nixon’s war on drugs. If only they knew the truth,” Washington Post, June 17, 2026
“Trump’s Medical Marijuana Move Focused on Helping Ailing Seniors, But Lack of Coordination Could Cause Backlash,” Marijuana Moment, May 11, 2026
“America’s Forgotten War on Drugs,” MedPage Today, April 13, 2026
Book Review: “Matthew D. Lassiter, The Suburban Crisis: White America and the War on Drugs. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2023.Helena Hansen, Jules Netherland, and David Herzberg, Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Opioids in America. Oakland: University of California Press, 2023.Amy C. Sullivan, Opioid Reckoning: Love, Loss, and Redemption in the Rehab State. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2021,” Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, Spring 2025
“Transforming MAT, Part II: The Swiss Way,” Points, March 2, 2024
“An Aircraft Carrier, Not a PT Boat: Transforming Access to Medication-Assisted Treatment in 2024 and Beyond,” Points, January 26, 2024
Review of David Courtwright’s “The Age of Addiction: How Bad Habits Became Big Business,” The Economic History Association, April 20, 2022
“‘I envision the methadone clinic as we now know it disappearing’: The promises and failures of methadone and LAAM,” Points, February 15, 2022
“Quiet Radicals: The Life and Work of Ruth and Edward Brecher, Part 1 - Ruth Came First,” Points, December 7, 2021
“9/11 and Drug History: An Interview with Dr. Samuel R. Friedman,” Points, September 11, 2021
“Points Roundtable: American Rehab from Reveal,” Points, September 17, 2020
“Why the 1970s Effort to Decriminalize Marijuana Failed,” Smithsonian Magazine, April 25, 2019
“Puff, Puff, Pass: Lessons From the Defeat of Marijuana Decriminalization,” AHA Perspectives on History, April 16, 2019
“The return of ‘reefer madness,’” Washington Post, April 16, 2019
“From Hippies to High Yield Insights: The Evolution of an Industry,” Points, November 29, 2018
"Richard Nixon went to war on marijuana. Donald Trump is making the same mistake with opioids," Washington Post, April 20, 2018
'“Hidden Figures of Drug History: Joan Ganz Cooney,” Points, August 16, 2018
"History shows we can't arrest our way out of the drug war," CNN, February 28, 2018
"U.S. States Tried Decriminalizing Pot Before. Here's Why It Didn't Work," TIME.com, December 7, 2017
“The Hum: A local woman’s maddening quest to understand a sound few others can hear,” Washington City Paper, July 20, 2017
“Love Me, Love My Running Shoes,” Run Washington Magazine, September 24, 2015
“Former anti-drug activists reflect on marijuana legalization,” Washington Post, April 17, 2015
BOOK CHAPTERS
Forthcoming: “Paraphernalia,” in Breaking the Habit (University of Chicago Press, 2027)
Preface: “A Higher Calling: The Life of Peggy Mann,” in Pot Safari (1982; rereleased 2025)
“PRIDE International and Drug War Diplomacy: The Parent Movement’s Global Battle Against Marijuana,” in Cannabis: Global Histories (MIT Press, 2021)
“A Higher Calling: NORML, PRIDE and the Cannabis Culture Wars,” in The War on Drugs: A History (NYU Press, 2021)
“NORML” and “Vote Hemp” in Political Groups, Parties, and Organizations that Shaped America: An Encyclopedia and Document Collection (ABC-CLIO, 2019)
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Lives Interrupted: The Fentanyl Tragedy (PAX Sapiens, 2026)
