There are different opinions on smart drug policies. Some want to decriminalize all drugs, some promote all drug legalization, and there is drug commercialization. What is the balanced approach from international experts? Luke Niforatos with Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions discusses what an expert panel recommends.

Luke Niforatos serves as the Executive Vice President of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions (FDPS) and is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading drug policy experts. Leveraging more than a decade working on drug, addiction and health care issues, Luke drives the strategy behind FDPS & SAM’s federal, state, and educational initiatives. Luke has testified in state capitols across America. He is a sought-after guest on major media outlets including ABC, Fox News, NBC, CNBC, CSPAN, Newsmax, and network affiliates, as well as syndicated and local radio shows in markets coast to coast. Luke has been featured in Time Magazine and as a speaker at drug policy events held by The Economist, the United Nations’ Commission on Narcotic Drugs, and hundreds of town halls. Prior to joining SAM, he was the co-founder of a successful healthcare company. Luke attended the University of Denver and has a Master of Arts from Johns Hopkins University. 

@learnaboutsam

@gooddrugpolicy

@lukeniforatos

Learnaboutsam.org

Gooddrugpolicy.org

Marijuana is addictive, especially with the high potency products. And with addiction come withdrawal. Withdrawal of THC is not like withdrawal from fentanyl or alcohol. It is more like withdrawal from nicotine - insomnia, anxiety, headaches. The symptoms last about 2 weeks and there are no medications to help. However, going up the FDA rapid approval pathway is a new medication. We talk about this treatment in this podcast.

Ginger Constantine, M.D. is the Chairperson, Co-Founder & CEO of PleoPharma.

Ginger Constantine, MD – Chairperson and CEO - with over 25 years of pharmaceutical regulatory and clinical development experience with the approval of more than 15 products filing numerous INDs, NDAs, and MAAs. Previous Vice President of Women's Health & Bone Repair Clinical Research at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals through its acquisition by Pfizer in 2010. Expertise in Phase 1 through 4 clinical development strategy and execution. 

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Founded EndoRheum Consultants in 2010, a successful clinical development consulting firm. Member of multiple scientific advisory boards. Has planned, authored and presented numerous scientific studies.

PheoPharma was granted fast-track designation for PP-01, a new investigational drug for cannabis withdrawal syndrome. 

Jamie Ross wears many hats.  She is Executive Director of the PACT Coalition, coordinator for the Nevada Statewide Coalition Partnership and sits on too many boards and committees to count.

Jamie Ross has been the Executive Director of the PACT Coalition since 2011. She has been involved with substance misuse prevention from a young age, and took that passion into a career creating system wide change to reduce substance misuse. 

The PACT Coalition is a substance misuse prevention coalition in Las Vegas with diverse funding focusing on the spectrum of prevention including mental health, primary and tertiary substance misuse prevention, and the intersection of prevention into all aspects of community building.  

Jamie believes in the power of community to change itself for the better. When a community comes together to solve its own problems, the result is transformative.  As Sam Quinones says, ‘the solution to the opioid crisis isn’t naloxone, it’s community.’ 

Communities can and should lead in creating an environment that prevents addiction. It is much easier to prevent a problem than treating a problem. One high level prevention initiative is fixing the Farm Bill that opened up the door to a new type of poison on Americans. The various intoxicating Hemp products, Delta-8, Delta-10, and others, have never been tested on rats, let alone kids. Sue Thau has been leading the charge in fixing the Hemp loop hole.

Sue Thau is a Public Policy Consultant representing Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA). She is nationally recognized for her advocacy and legislative accomplishments on behalf of the substance abuse prevention field. She has an extensive background in public policy and has held high positions at the federal, state, and local levels. She was a Budget Examiner and Legislative Analyst at the Office of Management and Budget, in the Executive Office of the President for over ten years. Sue was a driving force behind the passage, reauthorization and full funding of the Drug-Free Communities Act. In addition, Sue has worked to save and enhance funding for all federal substance abuse prevention and treatment programs over the last two decades. She is highly respected as an expert on demand reduction issues by members of Congress and staff on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill. Sue has an undergraduate degree from Cornell University in Human Development and Family Studies and a Master’s Degree from Rutgers University in City and Regional Planning.

The students at the San Diego State University Graduate Program in Homeland Security use this High Truths podcast as part of their curriculum.

Robert J. Harkins, MS, is a Lecturer and Academic Advisor (Lastnames: A-M) for the Graduate Program in Homeland Security.  Professor Harkins has extensive Homeland Security public safety expertise specializing in offenses and conspiracies involving United States Code, Title 21, Food and Drugs (Controlled Substances Act), and governmental managerial experience, to include investigative planning, critical thinking, and oversight of personnel and programs. Mr Harkins is extremely involved with organizations and associations focused on the networking of professionals in the public safety and public health sectors. 

As an Adjunct Faculty member with the Homeland Security Graduate Program, Mr. Harkins led a major effort to secure external grant support for teaching about Fentanyl to the San Diego County region on multiple levels, and helped design and build demonstration products for a major grant proposal to the CDC that was prepared and submitted via the SDSU Research Foundation. Mr. Harkins works with regional leaders in helping move Fentanyl and opioid abuse awareness to regional, state, and national leaders, and to many people serving in the law enforcement and social services community responding to the opioid epidemic.  

Mr. Harkins represents SDSU and the Homeland Security Program in regular meetings with community leaders, law enforcement leaders, and social service leaders responding to the alarming number of overdose deaths in San Diego County. Mr. Harkins has taught about Fentanyl including the design of Fentanyl education programs for middle school and high school as well as adults. These meetings with community leaders led to the creation of the Community Response to Drug Overdoses (CReDO) subcommittee, which is supporting a mandate by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to create a Fentanyl education curriculum for all schools in San Diego County along with Narcan/Naloxone distribution. 

Mr. Harkins' ability to provide compelling teaching is from the hundreds of teaching episodes he has had in contacting community members, as well as teaching them how to recognize Fentanyl poisonings and then how to appropriately respond. These teaching experiences have given him a profound ability to communicate to a wide variety of people in a compelling way, which has almost certainly saved many lives in the region. Mr. Harkins uses this same teaching experience in teaching and advising of graduate students in the Homeland Security Graduate Program. 

Sean Hemeon is an actor (911, Criminal Minds, True Blood, CW’s the Husbands), writer and artist. Originally from Northern Virginia, he now lives in Los Angeles with his husband and two Bostons. Sean will have his debut memoir The Good Little Druglord, the inspirational story of a (former) Mormon drug dealer who found redemption as a narc for the federal government—confronting the Russian Mafia, his darkest self, his mother, and the mother of a young man who died because he failed to act. 

The Good Little Druglord is an ode to redemption, recovery, and the mother/son bond—an ultimately UpLit memoir about a gay Mormon drug-dealing narc for the federal government.

           As a drug-dealing meth addict, I embraced my “darkness,” claiming my place among the worst of God’s beasts until my deeper humanity was challenged, when someone died because I failed to act. It was the call from the dead boy’s mother, begging to know what happened, that shattered me.

          I wrote this book to let that grieving mother know what happened to her son, and to let my own mother know what happened to her son. I also wrote this book for those struggling with identity, and for those who care about them. 

I believed I was a decent human, until I was confronted with the reality I was not. I believed I deserved every horrible thing that had happened in my life: abandonment, molestation, and beatings. I deserved to go to prison or be murdered by the volatile Russian Mafia meth supplier to whom I owed thousands of dollars.

          Like many others, maybe you, I spent too many years of my life engaged in a futile battle for self-love and acceptance. As long as I believed I was the cause for the lack, it would always feel like chasing rainbows (or running from them in my warped Mormon case). I picked up beliefs in my childhood from my parents, society, and religion that shaped a false identity. 

It was my fault my depressed mother didn’t love me, so I tried to be the best little Mormon boy I could be. When that failed, I became her worst fear: a hedonist, raging faggot, drug-dealing narc. I rejected the authentic parts of myself, and forced the “acceptable” to be effective until it wasn’t, leading to an implosion.

          It took me nearly twenty years to get here, journaling to find my way as I fought to be loved. I wore this story like a badge of honor in recovery, like a masturbatory glory piece. I wallowed in victim-y stuff, abating shame, but now, the shame is healing. 

I’ve shared my narrative, not just for the collective but to remember myself. It has become my superpower: Never forgetting my addiction makes whatever happens today a bonus, no matter how low I feel.

          There are other accounts of addiction, religious abuse, sexuality, and even gay boys and mothers, but few are wrapped in a riveting tale about a drug-dealing narc for the federal government evading the Russian Mafia. It’s identity and acceptance wrapped in a thriller.

Perhaps by the end, there may be hope for a drug-addicted loved one, or yourself if you need the help. I hope this story helps you see that you and those you care about can live through your worst fears and nightmares. You, too, can be a mother-effing dandelion fighting to grow through the cracks. You, too, can also make peace with your mother, or her memory. 

           My mother proudly walked me down the aisle at my very gay wedding and applauded when I kissed my new husband. 

           By the end of this, you’ll want to hug your mother, too.

Lori Jane Gliha is an award winning investigative reporter with Scripps News. She is also the nation's expert in tracking pediatric fatalities due to fentanyl. She joins us to share her experience. This is an episode you may want to watch on You Tube to view some of Lori Jane's video clips. The show notes have links to reports.

Lori Jane Gliha is an ethical, enterprising, award-winning national investigative reporter for Scripps News.

Scripps News Investigates: The silent toll of the fentanyl epidemic. Nov 2023

How a 5-year-old ingested fentanyl in her kindergarten classroom

Poisoned: Fentanyl's Child Victims march 2025

He was gasping for air: How witnesses describe child fentanyl poisonings

Colorado Gov Jared Polis 'disheartened by communication gaps in child fentanyl cases

Twin babies and parents saved following hospital fentanyl test

States push for life saving fentanyl testing laws amid rising opioid concerns - April 2025

Many Child fentanyl deaths remain uncharged, Scripps News review finds

Fentanyl Pipeline: How a Chinese Prison Helped Fuel a Deadly Drug Crisis in the United States - we discuss this publication in ProPublica and much more in a fascinating discussion with Sebastian Rotella.

Sebastian Rotella is an award-winning foreign correspondent, investigative reporter and novelist. His reporting has taken him across the world to more than 30 countries. Since 2010, he has been a senior reporter at ProPublica covering international security issues such as organized crime and intelligence. His honors include a Peabody award, multiple awards from the Overseas Press Club, Columbia University’s Moors Cabot Prize for coverage of Latin America, and Italy’s Urbino Press Award. He is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Sebastian is also a critically-acclaimed author of three novels: Rip Crew (2018), named one of Kirkus Review’s best crime novels of the year; The Convert’s Song (2014), an editor’s pick on Amazon; and Triple Crossing, the New York Times Sunday Book Review’s favorite action thriller and debut crime novel of 2011. He is also the  author of Twilight on the Line: Underworlds and Politics at the U.S.-Mexico Border (1998), named a New York Times notable book. He has been an invited speaker at the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the U.S. Army, the NYPD Intelligence Division, and U.S. and foreign embassies, think tanks and universities. His coverage of the U.S. Mexican border inspired two songs on Bruce Springsteen’s album The Ghost of Tom Joad.

Rotella articles of interest:

https://www.propublica.org/article/china-fentanyl-prison-yafeng-illegal-drug-trade

https://www.propublica.org/article/chinese-organized-crime-us-marijuana-market

https://www.propublica.org/article/oklahoma-marijuana-china-diplomat-visits

https://www.propublica.org/article/marijuana-oklahoma-china-immigration-safety-workers

https://www.propublica.org/article/china-cartels-xizhi-li-money-laundering

https://www.propublica.org/article/liu-tao-trump-meeting-china-investigation

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-beijing-chinese-mafia-europe-protect-interests

Carlton Hall Consulting LLC (CHC) – Driving Global Change Through Community Solutions and Prevention Mastery

Carlton Hall Consulting LLC (CHC) is a dynamic, full-service consulting firm dedicated to providing customized solutions that drive measurable change for communities, organizations, and individuals. With a mission to solve complex social challenges and improve the human condition, CHC delivers expert training, technical assistance, and capacity-building services to clients in both the public and private sectors at local, national, and international levels.

As a co-owner of Prevention Mastery, CHC is at the forefront of professional development in the prevention field. Prevention Mastery is a cutting-edge, customizable online Learning Management System (LMS) that provides a suite of enhanced consultative services tailored for prevention professionals at the federal, state, regional, local, and international levels. Designed to streamline digital learning, Prevention Mastery consolidates e-learning needs into a single, comprehensive platform—offering automated training assignments, completion records, version control, and tracking. Through expert-led, self-paced courses, Prevention Mastery equips prevention professionals with actionable, data-driven strategies to drive change and leadership in the field.

Led by President and CEO Carlton Hall, CHC has been a leader in substance abuse prevention, capacity building, and community problem-solving for over 25 years. Carlton’s work spans four continents, partnering with global organizations, national governments, and grassroots coalitions to advance prevention science and demand reduction efforts. CHC has played a key role in international initiatives, including collaborations with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Colombo Plan, and the African Union, and has supported groundbreaking conferences and training programs in Kenya, India, South Africa, Zambia, Nigeria, and Uganda.

Committed to culturally responsive solutions, CHC has launched impactful global programs such as the Global Youth Prevention Scholars Initiative (GYPSI) and the NHIF Initiative in Kenya, which provided life-changing healthcare access to over 116 women and their families. CHC continues to shape global prevention efforts through executive training, technical assistance, and capacity-building support, including its work with SAMHSA’s Southeast Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC, Region 4). Carlton Hall also serves as President of the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children (NA-DEC) and sits on the board of Movendi International, further amplifying CHC’s influence in shaping sound drug policy, advancing prevention science, and strengthening community-led solutions worldwide.

Dr. Mark Gold gives a historical perspective on field of addiction from the original research of the brain disorder to current events.

Dr. Mark Gold is a frequent contributor to Psychology Today.

Dr. Mark Gold is an inventor, pioneering translational researcher, Eminent Scholar, Distinguished Professor, & Chairman whose career in translational neuroscience began in 1972. His theories have changed the field, stimulated research, and led to new treatments. Gold, while at the YSOM, proposed a novel brain mechanism and changes to explain opioid dependence and withdrawal, and discovered the anti-withdrawal efficacy of alpha-2 adrenergic agonists-clonidine and lofexidine. With his Yale colleague & mentor Herb Kleber, Gold helped change addiction psychiatry to disease management, evidence-based care with MATs, and evaluation & treatment of co-occurring disorders. He has made major contributions to Naloxone in overdose and Naltrexone and agonist therapies in OUD.  Gold’s work proved that cocaine caused a relative dopamine deficiency, anhedonia & was addicting   Gold pioneered the study of second-hand tobacco, cannabis, and opium smoke. Gold and Kelly Brownell co-chaired the historic Yale Conference on Food and hedonic overeating and the Oxford University Press textbook. Over his 25-year career at the University of Florida, he was a Professor of Neuroscience,  physician-scientist at UF McKnight Brain Institute, and University bench-to-bedside leader. He became a UF Distinguished Professor, Eminent Scholar & Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry.  He was awarded an innovator award from UF President as a translational researcher and inventor for work on Xhale Assurance’s disposable pulse oximetry ala sensor, which Philips acquired in 2018. Dr. Gold was a Founding Director of the MR-guided radiation oncology pioneer Viewray and AxoGen, the nerve recovery and repair platform. Since his retirement, Gold has continued his work as a researcher, mentor, and inventor working at WUSTL. Translating scientific progress to help patients, he worked with ADAPT Pharma on naloxone and naltrexone culminating in a HEAL grant to develop longer-acting formulations. He is on the BOD of education, intervention, and prevention organizations, including CADCA. ASAM presented Gold with the McGovern ” Annual Award for highly meritorious contributions … Lifetime pioneering work”.  Dr. Gold has received the APA’s Foundation Fund Award, APF’s Pillar of Excellence, DEA & NAATP’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Research, and Distinguished Alumni Awards from Yale, WUSTL, and the University of Florida. He was a Founding Editor of the Journal of Addiction Medicine & UpToDate. Currently, the Specialty Chief Editor of SUDs and Behavioral Addictions in Frontiers in Public Health.

Since his retirement as a full-time academic in 2014, Dr. Mark Gold has continued his teaching, mentoring, research, and writing as a University of Florida Emeritus Eminent Scholar, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University and an active member of the Clinical Council at the Washington University School of Medicine’s Public Health Institute. With Kelly Brownell, he has updated their ground-breaking Food and Addiction by Oxford University Press for a paperback edition and is currently working on updates and revisions for a Second edition. He has analyzed and presented epidemiological research on the opioid and emerging cocaine epidemics. He has written and lectured on responses to reduce overdose deaths, medication assisted therapies and opioid use disorders. He regularly lectures at Medical Schools, Grand Rounds and national scientific meetings on opioids, cocaine and the bench-to-bedside science in eating disorders, obesity, reward deficiency syndrome, and addictions.