Could it be Time to Decriminalize Drugs?
Maia Szalavitz is an award-winning, best-selling author and opinion writer, whose focus is on changing the narrative of addiction and recovery. Two of her books Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction and Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction, are among a long list of publications that address this issue. In this podcast, she talks about: Her New York Times opinion piece about Oregon decriminalizing drug possession How external force undermines internal motivation How the Black Lives Matter Movement shows the racial disparities in the justice system That criminal drug laws aren’t based on science and how emotions are decision algorithms The debate over decriminalization is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what actually works Explaining the analogy of addiction to that of falling in love or having a baby; people do crazy things People with addiction are not lazy, they are hurting Trying to punish our way out of addiction is not the answer Why it’s important to meet people where they are and welcome them to treatment Not calling doctor prescribed medication Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT) Why we need more expansive definitions of recovery How chronic pain patients are being negatively affected by the opioid epidemic