Drugs
2023 in Review
The Year of Ozempic
We may look back on new weight-loss drugs as some of the greatest advances in the annals of chronic disease.
Postscript
Angus Cloud’s Eyes Said It All
With his limpid gaze and profound stillness, the “Euphoria” star conveyed the soul of a man trapped by circumstance.
Under Review
The Rebranding of MDMA
Ecstasy used to be known as Therapy. What kind of drug could it become next?
The New Yorker Interview
How Richard Hell Found His Vocation
The punk-rock legend, who is publishing a book of new poetry later this month, speaks about nineteen-seventies New York, drugs, mortality, and the evolution of his writing.
Page-Turner
Reimagining Underground Rave Culture
A new book by the media theorist McKenzie Wark may be the most extensive depiction of the renegade party scene that has recently exploded in Brooklyn.
Letter from the Southwest
The Horrifying Epidemic of Teen-Age Fentanyl Deaths in a Texas County
Students have overdosed during class, in bathrooms, and in an elementary-school parking lot.
Daily Cartoon
Daily Cartoon: Monday, February 6th
“All I take anymore is mushrooms for my anxiety, ketamine for my depression, and ibuprofen for the goblins constantly eating my feet.”
A Critic at Large
How a Mormon Housewife Turned a Fake Diary Into an Enormous Best-Seller
“Go Ask Alice” sold millions of copies and became a TV movie, but its true provenance was a secret.
Dept. of Psychopharmacology
The Pied Piper of Psychedelic Toads
Octavio Rettig, an underground practitioner of 5-MeO-DMT, a hallucinogenic substance derived from Sonoran Desert toads, claims that he has revived a lost Mesoamerican ritual.
Annals of Inquiry
Ketamine Therapy Is Going Mainstream. Are We Ready?
The mind-altering drug has been shown to help people suffering from anxiety and depression. But how it helps, who it will serve, and who will profit are open questions.
Shouts & Murmurs
Time to Learn About Drugs from Me, Your Dad Who Grew Up in the Early Eighties to Mid-Nineties
I’ve never tried drugs, but I don’t need to in order to know their horrible effects. I learned the safe way—from a series of P.S.A.s in which Nancy Reagan teamed up with He-Man.
Culture Desk
Magic Mushrooms, a Love Story
A graphic novel tells the story of the couple whose love for fungi and each other laid the foundation for the serious study of psilocybin.
Letter from Honduras
Is the President of Honduras a Narco-Trafficker?
For decades, the U.S. has accommodated corruption in Central America. Now it is contending with the results.
American Chronicles
Stash-House Stings Carry Real Penalties for Fake Crimes
The undercover operations seem like entrapment, but their targets can receive long sentences—sometimes even harsher than those for genuine crimes.
Shouts & Murmurs
May Not Cause Side Effects
Annals of National Security
How a C.I.A. Coverup Targeted a Whistle-blower
When a Justice Department lawyer exposed the agency’s secret role in drug cases, leadership in the intelligence community retaliated.
Marmalade Skies Dept.
Turn On, Tune In, Get Well
New York is getting its first psychedelic-medicine center, with the help of a startup called MindMed, which develops hallucinogens to treat mental illness and addiction, and is funding an institute at N.Y.U. Langone Medical Center.
Letter from the U.K.
The Laughing-Gas Wars of London
Whatever the reason—ostentatious littering, the mad desire for a furtive lockdown high—nitrous-oxide cannisters are ubiquitous in London this summer.
Culture Desk
Steven Prince, an Early Scorsese Star, “Was the Guy with the Gun”
The subject of the newly reissued documentary “American Boy” is alive and well and still full of stories.
Letter from San Francisco
A Window Onto an American Nightmare
As the homelessness crisis and the coronavirus crisis converge, what can we learn from one city’s struggles?