The death of George Floyd has accelerated calls for police reform. Although decriminalizing drugs and the people who use them will not end police violence, it is part of the structural change needed to fix the problem, writes fellow Katharine Neill Harris.
The collective trauma of the Covid-19 pandemic may provide a clearer understanding of why people use drugs — to help us see it not as a moral failing or a brain malfunction, but as a fundamentally human response to negative life events. Read more at the Baker Institute Blog.
The populist government under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has largely discounted the threat of COVID-19, and the true extent of the outbreak Mexico may not yet be known. If conditions significantly change for the worse, the president faces not only a public health crisis but also the possible undoing of the country's populist experiment.
Fellow Katharine Neill Harris considers the validity of risk assessment tools, which estimate the likelihood that an individual who has been charged with or convicted of a crime will commit a future offense. Baker Institute Blog: https://bit.ly/2Cwl6jc
The massacre in El Paso is a symbol of complex social phenomena that we are experiencing today — and is not simply a matter of mental health, as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other politicians have stepped forward to suggest. Read more at the Baker Institute Blog.
Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are becoming a permanent fixture of modern policing, and their effects are likely to be much more nuanced than originally predicted.
Despite the wealth of evidence attesting to the efficacy of medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction, the majority of Americans who need it can't get it — including in Harris County, Texas’ largest county. Baker Institute Blog: https://bit.ly/31D9qGV
The Commission on Combatting Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis appointed by President Trump released its report on Monday, July 31. Drug policy fellow Katharine Neill Harris assesses the commission's recommendations in the Baker Institute Blog.
Drug policy fellow Katharine A. Neill explains why establishing heroin-assisted treatment programs, which provide severely addicted individuals with controlled access to pharmaceutical-grade heroin, could make a significant dent in the number of U.S. deaths from opioid use in this post for the Baker Institute Blog.