Below are articles by, and interviews with, Maia Szalavitz, 2016-2017.
What We Don’t Know About Drugs Is Killing Us, Vice, 12/29/17
Scott Walker’s Drug Testing Policy: Expensive, Humiliating, and Dangerous, Rewire, 12/19/17
The surprising factors driving murder rates: income inequality and respect, The Guardian, 12/8/17
The DEA Raided This Doctor’s Office for Prescribing High Doses of Painkillers, Tonic/Vice, 12/7/17
It Doesn’t Take a Genius to Solve the Opioid Crisis, Vice, 12/4/17
Century of Lies, Drug Truth Network, podcast interview with Doug McVay, 12/3/17
Doctors Who Hate Drug Users Are Fueling the Opioid Crisis, Vice, 11/22/17
A Much-Hyped Addiction Treatment Is Less Effective Than Older Meds, Tonic/Vice, 11/16/17
Stress is bad for your health. Today’s political uncertainty makes it worse, The Guardian, 11/7/17
Cracking Down on Opioids Hurts People with Chronic Pain, Tonic/Vice, 11/3/17
A Different Lens on Addiction, podcast interview with Eric Zimmer, The One You Feed, 10/31/17
The Terrifying New Trend in Heroin Addiction, Vice, 10/17/17
If we don’t focus on why people overeat, we will never solve obesity, The Guardian, 9/27/17
This Woman’s Opioid Relapse Could Change Drug Laws Forever, Vice, 9/26/17
The Social Life of Opioids, Scientific American, 9/18/17
Cultural Baggage Radio Show, podcast interview with Dean Becker, Drug Truth Network, 9/10/17
Rethinking Addiction with Maia Szalavitz, podcast interview with Scott Barry Kaufman, The Psychology Podcast, 9/6/17
This Fentanyl Test Could Save Lives if America Would Just Embrace It, Vice, 8/31/17
This American War on Drugs, On the Media, 8/25/17
It’s Time to Stop Calling People ‘Addicts’, Tonic/Vice, 8/21/17
Why social capital could be the key to solving America’s overdose epidemic, The Guardian, 8/16/17
What Trump’s National Opioid Emergency Should Look Like, Vice, 8/14/17
Secret Safe Injection Site Response to US Drug Crisis, video interview, The Real News, 8/13/17
There’s Been a Secret Safe Injection Site in the US for Three Years, Tonic/Vice, 8/10/17.
Tonic Talks video panel discussion on opioid epidemic, Facebook, 8/3/17
The True Origins of the War on Drugs, podcast, News Beat, 8/17
Addiction is Like an Ill-Advised Love Affair, Tonic/Vice, 7/28/17
How Safe Is America’s Hottest Hottest Heroin Addiction Treatment?, Vic, 7/26/17
The Radical Therapist #034 – Transforming Addiction Treatment, Prevention, and Policy w/ Maia Szalavitz, podcast interview with Chris Hoff, 7/23/17
Making the Case that Drug Addiction Is a Learning Disorder, interview with Rachel M. Cohen, Alternet, 7/9/17
Why do we think poor people are poor because of their own bad choices?, The Guardian, 7/5/17
The Rich and the Middle Class Make the Same Decisions As Poor People, Alternet, 7/5/17
Ohio Lawmaker Suggests Letting People Die If They’ve Overdosed Twice Before, Tonic/Vice, 6/27/17
The Psychedelic Revolution Is Being Led by a 79-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor, Tonic/Vice, 6/24/17
Prescribed Painkillers Didn’t Cause the Opioid Crisis , Tonic/Vice, 06/20/17
America’s Latest Drug Epidemic Is Weirdly Nonviolent, Vice, 06/20/17
Why We Should Say Someone Is A ‘Person With An Addiction,’ Not an Addict, NPR, 6/11/17
The AP Learns to Talk About Addiction. Will Other Media Follow?, Undark, 6/6/17
Could This Controversial Treatment Help More People Beat Heroin Addiction?, Women’s Health, 6/6/17
Maia Szalavitz On a Quarter Century of Addiction Activism, interview with Anne Giles, The Fix, 5/29/17
Air rage: why does flying make us so angry? Science says it’s about class, The Guardian, 5/25/17
Trump Says Mass Murder of Drug Users Is ‘Great,’ and That’s Terrifying, Vice, 5/24/17
Why taking drugs to treat addiction doesn’t mean you’re ‘still addicted’, Sarah Wakeman and Maia Szalavitz, STAT News, 5/18/17
I Smoked Weed Three Times and Ended Up in Rehab Hell, Vice, 5/15/17
Why Americans hate ‘getting high’, Green State, 5/11/17
Donald Trump’s Drug Czar Is Very High on Forced Rehab, Vice, 4/24/17
Why Do Gifted Autistic Children Fly Under the Radar?, Paste, 4/21/17
WYNC On The Media, interview, 4/14/17
‘Addiction is love gone awry’: We shouldn’t shame drug users, says best-selling author, interview with Bob Young, Seattle Times, 4/5/17
Why Deadly Fentanyl Is So Hard to Wipe Out, Vice, 4/3/17
Why Trump Probably Won’t Crack Down on Pot, Vice, 3/17/17
An opioid action plan with one troubling flaw: doubling down on dealer arrests, Daily News, 3/14/17
Autism’s Hidden Habit, Spectrum, 3/1/17; republished by The Atlantic, 3/2/17
The Feds Are About to Stick It to Pain Patients in a Big Way, Vice, 2/28/17
Why Every Generation Freaks Out About a New Drug, Vice, 2/13/17
The War on Drugs Reevaluated: Donald Trump’s Promise of More Jobs Could Mean Less Drug Abuse, part 4 of 5, The American Spectator, 1/16/17
Why Heroin Users Aren’t As Afraid of Deadly Fentanyl As They Should Be, Vice, 1/16/17
The War on Drugs Reexamined: How Marijuana Could Help Fight the Overdose Epidemic, part 3 of 5, The American Spectator, 1/12/17
Dopamine: The Currency of Desire, Scientific American, 1/17
The War on Drugs Reexamined: Treating Opioid Addiction: A Radical Way, part 2 of 5, The American Spectator, 1/11/17
The War on Drugs Reexamined: President Trump Needs to Gut Regulations That Harm Effective Drug Policy, part 1 of 5, The American Spectator, 1/10/17
You Can Rely On Drugs Without Being An Addict, Vice, 12/10/16
Dopamine: The Currency of Desire, Scientific American Mind, 12/8/16
Squaring the Circle: Addiction, Disease and Learning, Neuroethics, 12/3/16
Shrooms Could Make Cancer Patients Less Afraid of Death, Vice, 12/1/16
How Much of a Disaster Will Trump’s Drug Policies Be?, Vice, 11/23/16
US Addiction Statistics Are Dire. Small Changes Won’t Solve the Problem, The Guardian, 11/18/16
Episode #154: Rethinking Addiction With Maia Szalavitz, podcast, SmartDrugSmarts, 11/11/16
How Marijuana Won the Election, Vice, 11/10/16
The Chemistry of Addiction Explains Why Disappointment Hurts So Much, New York Magazine, 11/9/16
Why We Shouldn’t Charge Drug Dealer’s for Their Clients Deaths, Vice, 11/2/16
Why the Codependency Myth of Drug Addiction Needs to Die, Vice, 10/25/16
A genocide of dehumanized drug users, Chicago Tribune, 10/9/16
Do Viral Videos of Heroin Overdoses Make You Uncomfortable? They Should, The Guardian, 10/7/16
Why we ignore thousands of killings in the Philippines: The victims were drug users, Washington Post, 10/6/16
The 4 Traits That Put Kids at Risk for Addiction, New York Times, 9/29/16
The DEA Is About to Make Life Even More Dangerous for Heroin Users, Vice, 9/26/16
Addiction Treatment w/ Maia Szalavitz, interview, Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria, 9/19/16
Addicted to Anticipation: What goes wrong in the brain chemistry of a gambling addict, Nautilus, 9/15/16
Reducing the Painkiller Supply Could Make America’s Opioid Problem Even Deadlier, Vice, 9/13/16
Maia Szalavitz, The Queue, interview, 9/9/16
Why Is the US Supporting the Brutal, Deadly Assault on Drug Users in the Philippines?, Vice, 8/18/16
How Wall Street Dehumanized Teenage Inmates with Scientology-Infused Therapy, Vice, 8/5/16
What’s a Town to Do About Addiction?, 8/3/16
Episode 59: Unbroken Brain, Right Turn Radio, podcast, 8/1/16
A Truly Awful New York Times Article Shows How Addicted People Are Still Seen as Unworthy of Life, The Influence, 7/28/16
The Rules Around Opioid Maintenance Would Be Seen as Unconscionable in Any Other Branch of Medicine, The Influence, 7/27/16
Meeting Maia Szalavitz, interview, VolteFace, 7/25/16
What Science Says To Do If Your Loved One Has An Opioid Addiction, FiveThirtyEight, 7/19/16
‘Unbroken Brain’ Explains Why ‘Tough’ Treatment Doesn’t Help Drug Addicts, NPR, 7/7/16
Why we should decriminalize all drugs, The Guardian, 7/5/16
The Difference Between Being Happy and Being High, Vice, 6/30/16
Can You Get Over an Addiction?, New York Times, 6/26/16
Episode 62 – Maia Szalavitz, podcast, The Human Experience, 6/20/16
A New Definition of Addiction Makes Rehab and Recovery More Effective, Big Think, 6/16/16
Do We Need “Trigger Warnings” for Depictions of Drug Use?, The Influence, 6/1/16
Addictions are harder to kick when you’re poor. Here’s why, The Guardian, 6/1/16
Unbroken Brain: interview with journalist and author Maia Szalavitz, podcast, KBOO, 6/1/16
The Tragic, Pseudoscientific Practice of Forcing Addicts to ‘Hit Rock Bottom’, commentary by Jesse Singal, New York Magazine, 5/31/16
Is Addiction a Learning Disorder?, Open Society, 5/27/16
Century of Lies, podcast interview, 5/22/16
A New Understanding of Addiction, KERA, podcast interview, 5/17/16
Unlearning Addiction, VolteFace, 5/16/16
The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Addiction to Painkillers, Vice, 5/16/16
Opioid Overdose: Emergency Treatment Is Crucial, but It’s Not Enough, Scientific American, 5/13/16
Opioid Addiction Is a Huge Problem, but Pain Prescriptions Are Not the Cause, Scientific American, 5/10/16
The public scorns the addiction treatment Prince was going to try. They shouldn’t. Washington Post, 5/9/16
In the video below published 5/9/16, the introduction of the speaker begins at 4:10.
Attract Patients to Addiction Treatment, Don’t Force Them Into It, New York Times, 5/4/16
Rethinking Drug Prohibition on a Global Scale, Vice, 5/2/16
Does Addictions Treatment Require a Higher Power?, NPR, 5/1/16
Unbroken Brain: My “It’s Complicated” Relationship With Alcoholics Anonymous, The Influence, 4/26/16
Street opioids are getting deadlier. Overseeing drug use can reduce deaths, The Guardian, 4/26/16
The answer to treating drug and alcohol addiction may be far simpler than you think, interview, Business Insider, 4/26/16
Maybe Addiction Is More Like a Learning Disorder Than a Disease, interview, Gizmodo, 4/18/16
Heroin: A New Look at Addiction and Its Treatment, podcast interview, The Halli Casser Jayne Show, 4/16/16
Why Addiction Is a Learning Disorder, interview, The Daily Beast, 4/8/16
Addiction Isn’t What You Think: An Interview with Author Maia Szalavitz, podcast interview with Dr. Ellen Hendriksen, The Savvy Psychologist’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Mental Health, 4/8/16
Addiction as a Learning Disorder, podcast interview, The Brian Lehrer Show, 4/7/16
Addiction is a learning disorder: Why the war on drugs is useless, AA undermines treatment, and addiction studies can learn a lot from autism, interview, Salon, 4/7/16
How Parents Talk to Their Kids About Drugs in 2016, Vice, 4/6/16
The Myth of the Addictive Personality, Gawker, 4/5/16
Drug addiction should be treated like a learning disorder – not a crime, The Guardian, 4/5/16
If Addiction Is a Disease, Why Is it Criminal?, Democracy Now, 3/31/16, video interview. Note: The interview in the video above refers to part one which is here.
Curbing pain prescriptions won’t reduce overdoses. More drug treatment will, Guardian, 3/29/16
We’ve Got the Heroin Epidemic All Wrong, The Dallas Morning News, 3/21/16
Five Myths About Heroin, Washington Post, 3/4/16
Why Isn’t America Doing the One Thing That Would Reduce Heroin Deaths Right Now?, Vice, 2/8/16
The Rehab Industry Needs to Clean Up Its Act. Here’s How, The Influence, 2/4/16
Is Shame an Antidote to Addiction?, New York Times, Letter to Editor (scroll down), 2/3/16
- Maia’s writing from the current year is here.
- Maia’s writing from 2018-2020 is here.
- Selections from Maia’s pre-2016 writing are here.
Last updated 11/16/21