What is Medical Cannabis Anyway?
I came looking for a high and found a medicine. Being a patient still comes down to whether my ID matches my address.
I write for people outside the room where the decisions get made. Most of it is about cannabis and public health, and the widening gap between what the research shows and what policy actually does. Some of it runs in outlets, some of it runs weekly on my own Substack.
In print
On hospital REITs, private-equity extraction, and the regulatory gap that let a Massachusetts hospital sit closed for six years. A state that regulates utilities and transit has no equivalent tools for hospital infrastructure.
Read in CommonWealth BeaconHow alcohol and tobacco companies have tried to buy their way into legal cannabis, what the research says about how far they have actually gotten, and why the outcome depends on the regulatory structure we choose to build.
Read the pieceThe foundational essay on why both prohibition and unregulated commercial markets cause harm, and why the best policy sits in the space between them. Published alongside a companion interview with Dr. John Marks.
Read the pieceThe weekly
My Substack about cannabis policy and public health: what the research actually shows, how legal markets are affecting the communities they were supposed to serve, and who is driving those decisions. New pieces most weeks.
I came looking for a high and found a medicine. Being a patient still comes down to whether my ID matches my address.
The federal government just lifted one of the tax barriers crushing cannabis operators. It lifted it for the ones who needed help least.
A small crack in federal prohibition, delivered through a UN treaty that defined its shape.
The Globe called for cannabis education and blamed the average consumer. They had a roadmap for something better and ignored it.