| Nov 1, 2017 | Environment / Health|Rights / DemocracyDonald Trump recently declared the opioid epidemic a national public health emergency. At first I thought, is this the first time I approve of something Trump has done? Alas, no. And here’s why: Nine years ago, I lost my brother to a heroin overdose. My brother...
| May 31, 2017 | Environment / HealthThe end of the school year has a tendency to bring crises to my attention. I’m a graduate teaching assistant, which means I have more face-to-face contact with the students than the professor I work for. I know their names and I know them as individuals. There...
| Mar 22, 2017 | Environment / HealthAttorney General Jeff Sessions recently called marijuana use a “life-wrecking dependency” that is “only slightly less awful” than heroin. Really? If that were true, maybe my little brother would be alive. I don’t know the full story of my...
| Jun 29, 2016 | Environment / HealthI’m depressed. I’ve dealt with mental health issues for decades now. Nothing fancy or interesting like multiple personalities or hallucinations. Just run-of-the-mill boring ones — good old depression and anxiety, and maybe some undiagnosed PTSD to go with...
| Feb 3, 2016 | Environment / HealthWe often hear about public health crises related to poor diet, lack of exercise, and smoking. But what about chronic stress? Canadian physician Gabor Maté studies the mind-body connection. He argues that chronic stress plays a big role in the development of disease....
