This Is What's Breaking the Drug War

 In collaboration with Pacific Standard Magazine

An onslaught of new "psychoactive substances" -- an ever-shifting range of chemical products marketed in stores under names like "bath salts" and "spice" -- has transformed the global market for recreational drugs and reduced drug enforcement efforts to a hopeless game of Whac-a-Mole: as soon as one of these substances gets banned, a slightly different formula pops up, untested and potentially dangerous.

In Pacific Standard's March/April cover story, Maia Szalavitz, a reporter covering drugs and addiction for nearly 30 years, introduces us to Matt Bowden, a flamboyant New Zealand glam-rocker and drug-maker who has played a key role in launching this historically viral outbreak of new drugs. He has also spearheaded a national reform in favor of establishing a regulated market for new psychoactive substances, a tactic that may prove to be the only viable policy response to this burgeoning pharmacopeia. Rather than punish New Zealand for this experiment, world leaders -- faced with their own losing battles against so-called legal highs -- are taking careful notes. Has America reached a tipping point regarding the war on drugs? Is cutting off supply instead of focusing on minimizing their damage more retrograde than ever?

This podcast contains mature language.