This post is part of a collaborative narrative series composed of my writing and Chris Arnade’s photos exploring issues of addiction, poverty, prostitution and urban anthropology in Hunts Point, Bronx. For more on the series, look here. ————————- Heroin addiction, a chronic relapsing disorder characterized by excessive drug taking and seeking, requires constant psychotherapeutic and [...]

To keep up with my Hunts Point, Bronx series I’ve started an archive that I’ll be updating with each future post. Below find links to all of my writings in reverse chronological order. Feel free to start from the beginning to get sense of the journey, or with more recent-action posts. This is a continual [...]

This post is part of a collaborative narrative series composed of my writing and Chris Arnade’s photos exploring issues of addiction, poverty, prostitution and urban anthropology in Hunts Point, Bronx. For more on the series, look here. ————————- Sonya and Eric: Hunts Point, Bronx. Courtesy of Chris Arnade. Sonya’s going to court today to see [...]

This post is part of a collaborative narrative series composed of my writing and Chris Arnade’s photos exploring issues of addiction, poverty, prostitution and urban anthropology in Hunts Point, Bronx. For more on the series, look here. ————————- In response to the newly-released US 2013 National Drug Strategy (PDF), I’ve written a portrait of those [...]

This post is part of a collaborative narrative series composed of my writing and Chris Arnade’s photos exploring issues of addiction, poverty, prostitution and urban anthropology in Hunts Point, Bronx. For more on the series, look here. ————————- A year since I met her, Beauty smokes more K2 (a synthetic cannabinoid) than she ever has, [...]

It’s been over a year since I first went to Hunts Point, Bronx, since I first spoke to the people who would grow to consume most of my daily thought-stream. Here is a reblog of my original post on the community, now having made hundreds of trips to the neighborhood instead of just five. In [...]

Addiction remains a topic riddled with bad science commentary and outdated beliefs, mainly because no one wants to talk about it. One of my favorite drug and addiction writers Dirk Hansen has tied his posts, those covered in his Addiction Inbox blog, together in an anthology — a fascinating and detailed one, about questions and [...]

This post is part of a collaborative narrative series composed of my writing and Chris Arnade’s photos exploring issues of addiction, poverty, prostitution and urban anthropology in Hunts Point, Bronx. For more on the series, look here. ————————- Roland: Hunts Point. Courtesy of Chris Arnade. Roland’s new to drugs and the street life at 21 [...]

This post is part of a collaborative narrative series composed of my writing and Chris Arnade’s photos exploring issues of addiction, poverty, prostitution and urban anthropology in Hunts Point, Bronx. For more on the series, look here. ————————- Opiate withdrawal refers to the wide range of symptoms that occur after stopping or dramatically reducing opiate [...]

I’ve asked a scientist who has struggled with mental health issues and substance abuse through STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduate school to write about it, to highlight the pressures faced and the way problems are noticed, exacerbated and often, perhaps unintentionally, masked over the course of education. This as well as other recent [...]