Rerun: Why has the War on Drugs not worked? Lessons from Undercover Policing

11/16/21 • 65 min

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This re-run was triggered by a news article of a horrible event in Ecuador where a prison riot killed 68 people.
Such type of events are becoming increasingly commonplace due to organised crime. The rioters and instigators must be dealt with appropriately to control the violence, but beyomnd that where does that leave us?
We can take one stance, which is drugs are bad and all drug dealers must be banned, drug consumers must be victimised and jailed for their infractions of law. While this view is probably justified, it doesn't help solve the drug problem. Why?
Because, decades of pursuing the bad guys and prohibiting the drugs has not helped eradicate the problem. In fact, it has made it worse says our guest, Neil Woods. Neil is someone who after two and half decades of being an undercover cop, is trying to go to the root cause of the problem and is arguing for evidence based drug policy.
In fact, before you make a judgement, Neil's comments will make both conservatives and libertarians happy. Not because, it is political but because he advises following the evidence and ensuring adequate regulations are in place to help people rather than pool all resources behind policing.

Previous Episode

Rerun: Analytical Chemistry & Climate Change with Dr. Amanda Grannas

It's the climate change summit week. So in preparation for everyone, we wanted to re-run this crucial episode that we hope everyone gets to listen to.
She gives a personal viewpoint as a scientist, coming from a coal-mining family and being the first graduate in her family to going on to be the Vice-Provost and Chief Research Officer of Villanova University.
Dr. Amanda Grannas leads us a fantastic journey of her experiences as an analytical chemist and how analytical chemistry is a topic that most people don't think but still is such an important part of our life. It surrounds us yet we know so little about it. She re-lives some of the most personal journey of how climate change affects all of us and gives a very passionate defense of "why we must save our planet"?
Finally, she closes by how her experiences shapes her leadership both in the lab as a "vial labeller" and her current life as the "Chief Research Officer" of Villanova (via the VISIBLE program).
DISCLAIMER: Our sound quality in our early days was not as good as it is now, so with that caveat, we present the episode to you.
Amanda's Twitter ID: @AmandaGrannas
Her lab homepage: http://agrannas.clasit.org/

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The story of PsychedeRx series' sound design

Recently, one of our loyal listeners sent a very kind message. It was extremely appreciate of our PsychedeRx series and asked a key question about how we went about doing the music as they referred to.
That's when I realized that what I had taken as a necessary and mandatory part of our podcast was appreciated by the listener. It was a very pleasant evening and I ended up smiling the whole evening.
I was urged by the listener to put out our thought process so that more people can appreciate our efforts. This is an effort to provide that background.
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