Maiz Szalavitz is the author of Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction, and the New York Times bestseller Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction.

Below are current articles by Maia Szalavitz.

Photo by Bettina Hansen of The Seattle Times

Photo by Bettina Hansen of The Seattle Times

Do Safe Injection Sites Increase Crime? There’s Finally an Answer, The New York Times, 11/16/2023

The Troubled Teen Industry Offers Trauma, Not Therapy, The New York Times, 10/19/2023

The A.D.H.D. Drug Shortage Is Causing Real Pain, The New York Times, 10/09/2023

The Surprising Ways Cannabis can be Part of Drug Addiction Treatment, New Scientist, 10/5/2023

Vivitrol, Used to Fight Opioid Misuse, Has a Major Overdose Problem, Scientific American, 9/13/2023

Portugal Has Succeeded Where We’ve Failed With Addiction, The New York Times, 8/29/2023

We Know What Happens When We Prosecute Drug Dealers as Murderers, The New York Times, 7/28/2023

This Drug Holds Promise for Cult Survivors, The New York Times, 7/09/2023

What Ozempic Reveals About Desire, The New York Times, 6/04/2023

This Is What Neuroscientists and Philosophers Understand About Addiction, The New York Times, 4/24/2023

People Can’t Get Their A.D.H.D. Medicine, and That’s a Sign of a Larger Problem, The New York Times, 3/25/2023

Seeing Addiction as a Learning Disorder Changes Everything, The Basis: The Brief Addiction Science Information Source, 3/17/2023

People Have a Right to Nonreligious Rehab, The New York Times, 3/11/2023

We Can Reduce Homelessness If We Follow The Science On What Works, New Scientist, 1/26/2023

I Don’t Mind if You Say You Have ‘a Little OCD’, The New York Times, 1/22/2023

‘Entire Body Is Shaking’: Why Americans With Chronic Pain Are Dying, The New York Times, 1/3/2023

It’s Not Just About Pot. Our Entire Drug Policy Needs an Overhaul, The New York Times, 12/11/2022

How to Talk to Kids About Drugs in the Age of Fentanyl, The New York Times, 11/08/2022

The Most Important Question About Addiction, The New York Times, 9/29/2022

Something Better Than a Tent for the Homeless, The New York Times, 8/24/2022

The Story You’ve Heard About Cities, Drugs, and Mental Illness Is Wrong, Wired, 6/21/2022

Why Forced Addiction Treatment Fails, The New York Times, 4/30/2022

How the Drug War Died, The Nation, 4/11/2022

What the Opioid Crisis Took From People in Pain, The New York Times, 3/7/2022

Doctors Prescribing Opioids in Good Faith Should Not Be Prosecuted, Scientific American, 2/25/2022

Opinion: We’re Waging the Wrong Battle Against Opioids, Undark, 2/4/2022

Treating Addiction as a Crime Doesn’t Work. What Oregon Is Doing Just Might, The New York Times, 1/26/2022

Opioids Feel Like Love. That’s Why They’re Deadly in Tough Times, The New York Times, 12/6/2021

How Key Early Ideas Helped Shape Today’s Harm Reduction Movement, Filter, an excerpt from Undoing Drugs, 11/23/2021

Rethinking What it Means to Recover from Addiction, Time, 9/29/2021

Book talk on Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction, Drug Policy Alliance Department of Research and Academic Engagement, 9/22/2021

The FDA Shouldn’t Support a Ban on Kratom, Scientific American, 8/12/2021

The Pain Was Unbearable. So Why Did Doctors Turn Her Away?, Wired, 8/11/2021

How Drug Users Developed a Key Approach to Fighting Covid, The New York Times, 7/23/2021

Harm Reduction Is the Best Approach for COVID and Drug Addiction, Scientific American, 7/7/2021

We’re Overlooking a Major Culprit in the Opioid Crisis, Scientific American, 5/28/2021

What the Incredible Achievements of ACT UP Can Teach Activists Today, Filter, 5/19/2021

Pain and Isolation Are Driving America’s Lockdown Overdose Surge, Vice, 2/18/2021

Maia’s writing from 2018-2020 is here.

  • Maia’s writing from 2016-2017 is here.
  • Selections from Maia’s pre-2016 writing are here.

Last updated 11/16/2023