written for Inspire Malibu
At the end of January 2019, officials at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection declared a seizure of fentanyl powder and pills – 254 pounds in total – the largest in history. It was enough of the deadly synthetic opioid to kill an estimated 100 million Americans. The haul came through Mexico, in a truck packed with cucumbers, but the fentanyl shipment began its journey in China.
written for Inspire Malibu
As the dust from the November 2018 election settles, voters in three states voted to approve new marijuana laws. Michiganders will soon have access to recreational marijuana, bringing the number of states that allow for recreational consumption to 10. Missouri and Utah voters cast their ballots for the use of medical cannabis. In total, 33 states in the U.S. now allow for some form of legal marijuana use.
written for Inspire Malibu
The stark reality of the opioid crisis in America is that more than 115 people die every day as a result of prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl. To put that tragic statistic into context, more people die in one year from opioid overdoses than American lives lost during the entirety of the Vietnam War.
By Josh DuBose
January 9, 2018
WASHINGTON – Positioning the United States as the center for global investment is where Bloomberg contributor Tyler Cowen believes establishment Republicans and “Trumpian nationalists” move past their first few awkward dates and climb into bed together. In Trump’s Economic Revolution Is All About Investment, Cowen parses out why the Republican held government is so insistent on lowering the corporate tax rate to around 20 percent.
In The End of Identity Liberalism, author Mark Lilla argues that identity politics – the idea that meeting the different needs of individual cultures and groups bonds a broadly diverse electorate – will always lose elections because it creates, by its very nature, more discord than unity.
written for Inspire Malibu
It’s easy to forget that not every country in the world approaches issues of drug abuse and addiction as if it were a war. In fact, federal and state laws on illegal drug use in the United States seem uncompassionate at best and barbaric at worst, when compared to some other developed nations.
October 5, 2017
LOS ANGELES – About 300 people packed the basement auditorium of the Service Employees International Union building in Koreatown on Thursday to support a resolution that named L.A. a “city of sanctuary.”
As the nation comes t
o recognize drug abuse and addiction as a public health issue rather than a moral failing or lack of character that far too many people are incarcerated for, harm reduction strategies have leapt to the forefront. These tactics are taking on new forms and making advances that save lives.
By Josh DuBose
September 19, 2017
photo by navymailman
LOS ANGELES – “Restorative justice is a philosophy and a way of being in a school community,” says Deborah Brandy, director of district operations for Los Angeles Unified School District. In many ways, LAUSD, the largest district in California and the second largest in the country – behind the New York City school system – is leading the charge to change the way public schools approach discipline in the K-12 educational system.