Long Reads

Almost a decade ago, Elizabeth’s husband Chor experienced what she now calls a “healing crisis”: an opiate relapse after a 13 year stretch of sobriety. Little did they know back…

As the benefits of psychedelic therapy are more widely recognised, so is the importance of set and setting in mental health treatment. Now emerging technologies from AI-powered soundscapes to immersive,…

Minor tranquilisers are a class of medication known for their anti-anxiety effects. Miltown, the first of these prescription anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) drugs, quickly became a commercial success upon its debut in…

  I started smoking cannabis properly for the first time at university. Though I still count the two tokes I took from a boy a couple years older than me…

In 2021, recorded drug deaths in America tragically surpassed 100,000. That’s more than every American soldier killed in action since World War II – including in Vietnam, Korea, both Iraq wars…

  I am an opioid user, or a former one anyhow.  Contrary to the cliche, I’m not addicted. I never felt trapped or enslaved by my drug use. I never…

  In early January, as the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced a tentative degree of policy experimentation by piloting, in three boroughs, a diversion scheme whereby young people in…

  Despite the progress made in 2020, race is still a topic a lot of people in the UK feel uncomfortable talking about; the conversation around drug policy is no…

The queer community and illicit drug users are inextricably linked: Both are subjected to similar politicisation of private practices, both are disproportionately aggravated by social harms, and are both fighting…

 You can now listen to this essay as part of the Volteface Audio Long Reads selection. Just click on the link above.  Like the thick smoky aftertaste that lingers after…