Policy & Ethics

A recent article in The Washington Post demonstrates that when opioid medications become less available to veterans, suicide rates go up. And not by a little. This only serves to further show the extent of damage done by foolish U.S. drug policies.
As the Biden Administration's booster shot roll out approaches, we have plenty of evidence that the primary COVID vaccines are still very effective, a growing number of experts say, but very little data to justify widespread use of boosters. This kind of open policy debate is exactly what we need.
The federal government has proposed a nationwide vaccine mandate. It's a terrible idea.
As our lives become increasingly digitized, there has been a corresponding rise in concerns about the loss of privacy. That’s despite rules and laws in place meant to safeguard it. But according to a recent study, what we want to share for the public good is at odds with our privacy laws.
A new clinical trial examining the efficacy of masking on COVID-19 transmission has garnered a lot of media coverage. What the study shows and what people have been told the study shows are very different.
California just paused its plans for a statewide COVID-19 vaccine mandate. There wasn't an ounce of scientific evidence to support this proposal and enough opposition to halt the legislation, at least until after the upcoming elections. There's an important lesson here for policymakers.
Could governments mandate that we quit reproducing sexually for the sake of public health? It sounds outlandish, but there are prominent thinkers making that case. Their argument is superficially plausible but ultimately absurd, both for scientific and ethical reasons.
What are the boundaries of individual freedoms? Are there limits to our liberty? Does a pandemic change the calculus? 
A long-time critic of 2016 CDC guidelines for prescription of opioids calls for replacement of the CDC writers' team now revising the guidelines. Draft recommendations reviewed July 16th, 2021, double down on errors of science and misdirections which characterized the original. The present team has fundamental professional conflicts of interest and lacks first-hand expert knowledge of pain management practice.
In their rush to correct "misinformation" about the efficacy of masks, fact-checkers have obscured some important limitations surrounding the science they insist we all follow.
As of today, people who are immunocompromised are allowed to receive a booster shot. Sounds simple, right? That is, until the madness becomes evident.
Given the unabated rise in drug overdoses, the idea of safe injection sites has once again been raised. Dr. Jeffrey Singer of the Cato Institute (and also an advisor for ACSH) writes in the Providence Journal about Rhode Island's “overdose prevention sites.” It's all about harm reduction.