Ecstasy pills
Credit: portokalis

During the 1970s, the U.S. began what has now become known as the “war on drugs,” a reaction to the counterculture and drug-fueled climate of the 1960s. To the government’s dismay, these policies did nothing to quell the use of illicit drugs; rather, it opened a huge market for the illegal development, distribution and importation of psychoactive and hallucinogenic substances like marijuana, cocaine, LSD and, later, ecstasy and designer drugs.

Forty years later, the U.S. is facing a very different problem—a nation addicted to prescription drugs. And to make things a bit more complex, some of these illicit “street drugs” are now being hailed as potential breakthrough therapies for depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and possibly even autism. With the FDA’s recent decision to designate MDMA (also known as ecstasy) as a breakthrough therapy for PTSD, the increasingly blurred lines between prescription and illicit drugs in the U.S. and their impact on health and society are becoming even more complex.

As a graduate fellow at Boston University, I helped teach an introductory course on […]

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New Hampshire Republican Govenor Chris Sununu waves as he stands with his wife Valerie, left, and Speaker of the House Shawn Jasper after taking the oath of office at the State House in Concord, N.H.
Credit: AP/Charles Krupa

With a Republican in the governor’s mansion, multiple organizations backed by petrochemical billionaires Charles and David Koch are ramping up their efforts to convince New Hampshire policymakers to weaken the state’s renewable energy policies.

In a new report, Strata Policy — a pro-fossil fuel think tank based in Logan, Utah, that receives funding from the Kochs — recommends that New Hampshire lawmakers change the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) from a mandate to a voluntary goal for electricity providers, a move that would put the brakes on efforts to develop renewable energy technologies and reduce the state’s carbon footprint.

As part of its pro-fossil fuel agenda, Americans for Prosperity, a right-wing group also funded by the Kochs, is pushing for changes to New Hampshire’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state carbon […]

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Chinese electric car

China is outmaneuvering the U.S. and other countries in the global scramble for a vital element for electric cars.

As demand for the vehicles surges, Chinese companies have been doing deals around the world to secure supplies of lithium, a silvery-white metal mined from rocks in Australia and brine pools in South America.