If we wanted to design a culture from the ground up to maximize both the potential and severity of addiction, we would build it exactly like the United States today. 

Once upon a time, humans received contentment and fulfilment from their work, and they often went home feeling connected to their communities and identified with the service or goods they offered for sale. But for the last hundred years we've steadily changed that. Today, 1 in 8 of us in the United States has worked at McDonalds, a job that might pay the bills, but certainly isn't showing anyone how much they are truly capable of doing or connecting them to a sense of identity related to their work. We just do it to get a paycheck.

In this episode I will cover the various ways our medical, educational, employment, legal and political systems are all built to maximize addiction potential and severity, and to hide their tracks by blaming drugs and drug users for problems caused by the environment in which we life.

Cocaine and heroin costs around $1 per gram to produce from coca leaves and opium poppies, respectively. Yet these substances will cost a consumer upwards of 50x that much on the streets.

Find out more about behavioralist B.F. Skinner here. Read about his use of Operant Conditioning here.

In Bruce Alexander's experiments, rats that were put in a toyless, friendless cages used 19 times more morphine than those placed in comfortable, familiar homes with other rats.

For more about maximizing button-pressing by rewarding the button-presser randomly, in unexpected and unpredictable patters, check out this article.

This week I dive into neoliberalism and oligarchy, 2 systems the USA has repeatedly rejected despite their current resurgence of late. The war on drugs is part of a larger move to privatize public systems like medicine, post office services or policing, and to allow profiteering by rich folks who can step in to provide gear and services for these new markets once managed and paid for by the government.

For more about Clarence Thomas 's grifts, see The Nation article here.
Read more about the call for Clarence Thomas to excuse himself in Trump ballet case here.
For more about 6 corporations controlling 90% of our media, see the short article here.
More about Newt Gringrich's (and Frank Luntz's), "Language: A Mechanism of Control" here.
For stats on wealth/income gains between 1944-2014, check out this article by Thom Hartmann. 

Why do humans have such an odd fascination with criminals and outlaws? What happened to all the kings and queens who used to be in charge of everything...where did they go? Why? And what does any of this have to do with drugs?

In this episode I pick up where I left off last time by introducing Michel Foucault's concept of panoptic power, which explains why now days we all self-discipline to conform to social regulations. The war on drugs thrives in spaces where most citizens are thoroughly convinced of the stereotypes that surround drug use: immorality, contagion, degradation, the "disease" of addiction. Today I explain how that cultural knowledge comes to exist, and perhaps how we might be able to disrupt and rewrite those scripts.   

Have you ever thought, "dang, I just got out of work and I already dread going back tomorrow!"? Most of us have, and in response we did something to make ourselves feel better, something to take the edge off: we treated ourselves to an ice cream cone or binge watched our favorite Netflix series. That's the norm of 21st Century capitalism. Today's episode is about America's drug problem, but I take a route through a number of related topics including capitalism, leisure time, the "culture industry" (a term coined by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer), and Marx's alienation.

I also cover some theory from Friedrich Nietzsche, Theo Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse and Karl Marx. Intro from Office Space

This episode is all about America's unhealthily relationships with work and drugs. We live in a world where we are increasingly distracted and secluded, and our daily schedules often consist of punching a clock and returning home. It's no wonder we feel so compelled to use drugs. We are torturing ourselves with capitalism.

Benjamin Fong's book, Quick Fixes: Drugs in America from Prohibition to the 21st Century Binge, is available now. His other work is linked below on most pod-catchers.

"The Psychedelic Renaissance Is on the Verge of an Uneasy Enlightenment" in Jacobin.  

"Monsters of the Brain, Images of the Deity: Psychology and Religion in the Eighteenth Century" in The Journal of Religion.

"Hans Loewald and the Death Drive" is in Psychoanalytic Psychology.

"On Critics and What's Real: Russell McCutcheon on Religious Experience" is in the Journal of American Academy of Religion.
 
For more about eugeroics/nootropics like modafinil, check out the Vice article, "Taking the 'Smart Drug' Modafinil Made Me Love Work but Hate People"

Colorado's state prison budget has grown by almost 1300% in the last 35 years; it's now more than a billion dollars-per-year.

This week I talk to Christie Donner, founder of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. We discuss the current state of prisons in Colorado and across the US, and we spend some time digging into a few specific bills currently being debated by Colorado Legislators, including Good Samaritan Laws, fentanyls, safe use sites, and  education in prison. We also discuss Pell Grants, the school-to-prison pipeline, negative press coverage, and the ongoing staff crisis in departments of corrections across the country, specifically in Colorado.

You can watch the negative news coverage of La Vista Women's Prison Honor House on YouTube.

You can hear Dean Williams entire interview on the With(in) podcast, season 1, episode 1.

The DOC in crisis article Christie mentioned is available at ccjrc.org. 

This week my partner Dr. Erin Boyce joins me to talk about one of her areas of study, attachment theory. We discuss childhood development, identity formation, the important of strong attachments to parental figures, authenticity, depression, repression, and lots more.

For more on Attachment Theory, check out Mary Ainsworth's work.
For more on attachment, authenticity and addiction, check out Dr. Gabor Maté's work.

This week I share a summary of my new book, The Spectacle of Punishment: Lessons from a Century of Prison Films. I discuss cinematic outlaws and lawmen, and I cover the three main prisons used in every movie: prison as a playground, prison as a paradox or prison as penance. 

For more on Bill Yousman's work, check out his book Prime Time Prisons on US TV.
Check out Ear Hustle and DU-PAI's With(In) Podcast for voices from inside US prisons. 

This week I follow the trail of the US War on Drugs from 1970-2020. I cover Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal, the CIA's importation of cocaine into low income communities, Freeway Ricky, crack-versus-powder sentencing disparities, fentanyl, xylazine, and the role of media in all of it.

You can find links to citations in the episode descriptions of sampled audio. 

This week I share part 2 of The War on Drugs: 1920-1970. If you prefer the video format with lots of images and videos, you can find it on YouTube at The Dr. Junkie Show channel.

I cover Harry Anslinger, the origins of the war on drugs in the early 1900s, alcohol prohibition, stigmatization, and the recipe used by every politicians since to ramp the war up a bit more.

This week I share lecture I recorded a few years ago in video format. If you prefer to watch the video, you can find it on YouTube here: The War on Drugs pt 1.

I discuss the stereotypes that surrounded drugs prior to the 1900s, the ease with which addicted people could live normal lives, the medicalization of drugs, and the racism used to create and support the original drug laws in the United States (from California's ban on opium smoking in the late 1800s, to Maine's early prohibition of alcohol in the 1850s to the southern states' focus on cocaine and marijuana). 

This week I talk to Dr. Ashley Hamilton, director and founder of DU-Prison Arts Initiative. Dr. Hamilton's work has focused on using theater as a space of identity (re)formation, and she has become a force in Colorado DOC, spearheading the state's only prison newspaper, The Inside Report, the state's only prison radio station, Inside Wire, and a podcast devoted to rethinking incarceration called With(in).

She also periodically directs plays inside prisons across the state. You can check out DU-Prison Arts Initiative's recent production of These Walls on YouTube. 

This episode features the annual performance of Captured Words/Free Thoughts: Art and Poetry Inspired Inside US Prisons, volume 19. This year we have a great lineup commentated by Meghan Cosgrove, Dr. Erin Boyce, and of course, me.

To read complete editions of Captured Words/Free Thoughts, check out the CU-Denver Communication Dept. page.

You can check out Javonte Evans' work at his Instagram page

Special thanks to Dr. Hamilton Bean for recording his father's poem. Thanks to my students in Communication 4040 Spring 2023 semester for recording many other poems. And of course, thanks to Meghan's sister, Sophie, who has a future in spoken word. 

For a free copy, or to contribute art, poetry or prose to our next edition, please email me at benjamin.boyce@ucdenver.edu, or snail mail me at Captured Words/Free Thoughts, 1201 Larimer St. Suite 3014, Denver, CO, 80204. 

Intro & Outro by Javonte Evans. All other music from Pixabay. 

Have you ever wanted to reduce or moderate your consumption of alcohol or other drugs, but you didn't know how to do it or where to go for help? Today I talk to the founder of the nonprofit support group HAMS, Kenneth Anderson. HAMS stands for Harm reduction, Abstinence, and Moderation Support. They are a coalition of drug and alcohol users who support one another through recovery on their own terms. Kenneth and I discuss 12-step programs, harm reduction, cultural issues with alcohol, the difference between booze and other drugs, the lack of treatment options for folks who want to moderate (not quit) their drug or alcohol use, and a lot more. 

Additional links to Kenneth's  work: 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09B78Z88R
https://www.amazon.com/How-Change-Your-Drinking-Reduction/dp/145383060X
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=4zOAEAAAQBAJ&pg=GBS.PP1

This week I talk about synthetic cannabis, also known as Spice or K2. It hit the market in the late 1990s, and it was legal for many years before government officials both in the US and elsewhere passed new legislation banning it in all its forms. 

Check out the 1982 article, "“Cannabimimetic Activity from CP-47, 497, a Derivative of 3-Phenylcyclohexanol" to read about the earliest synthetic cannabinoid on record. For more general information about Spice, check out the academic article, "Spice drugs are more than harmless herbal blends: A review of the pharmacology and toxicology of synthetic cannabinoids." 

For more on Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message," check out his work in Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. 

This episode features part 2 of a conversation with activist, author and academic C Dreams. We dig into some of the basic pathways to learning about God, finding spirituality, navigating holy books, avoiding self-deception, and avoiding our tendency as humans to avoid critical analysis of our valued beliefs or morals.

To follow up on some of our topics, check out the following. For more about the historical journey of our current Biblical text, I suggest Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus. For more about the connection between spirituality and recidivism, check out Said & Davidson's recent article in Justice Quarterly, "A Mixed Method Evaluation of the Role of Religion in Desistance and Reentry."

Check out C. Dreams' work at Filter Magazine. You can also find her on Twitter @UnCagedCritique or the GoFundMe she is sponsoring. 

C. Dreams is back, and this time we got into all sorts of topics we missed the first time around. Today's episode is part 1 of 2. We talk about prison abolition, prison education, trans rights in prison, stigma, imposter syndrome, "I ain't shit" syndrome, patriarchy, Christianity, Faith, redemption, sex offender registries, identity and lots more. 

Check out C. Dreams' work at Filter Magazine. You can also find her on Twitter @UnCagedCritique or the GoFundMe she is sponsoring. 

In this episode I discuss the reason for the podcast, the choice of the name Dr. Junkie, and the purpose of teaching college classes inside prisons. I also talk about sigma, capitalism, incentivization, addiction, identity and opportunity.

For more on drug laws around the world, check out my article in Filter Magazine  called "Our Pathway to the Legal Regulation of All Drugs," or Episode 102 of this podcast, "What It's Like in Places Where Drugs are Legal."

For more about placebo effects (SSRIs, 12-step meetings, etc.) you can check out Episode 113 of this podcast, "Placebo Effect." To learn about the history of 12-step programs (particularly AA), check out Episode 119: "Alcohol, 12-Step Programs, and Bill Wilson on LSD."

Check out my new book about the impact of prison movies on our cultural attitude toward incarceration: The Spectacle of Punishment: Lessons from a Century of Prison Films. 

This week I sit down with my fellow professor in the college education in prison program at CU-Denver. We talk about our experience as prison educators, the reasons for college in prison, the benefits of education as an identity-building tool, and lots more.

To read published work from our incarcerated students, check out the Westword Article, "Educating Incarcerated People: An Easy Choice," or check out "In Between the Sword and the Pen" in the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice. The article Meghan mentioned (by me) about pushups in prison is "I did 340 Pushups to Prepare for the TV Version of Prison, Then I got There" in The Marshall Project. You can watch the Channel 9 news story talking shit about treating those in prisons like humans on YouTube, "Inmates drop female staffer into dunk tank during prison fundraiser." 

Check out my new book, The Spectacle of Punishment: Lessons from a Century of Prison Films wherever you buy books. You might also enjoy the open sources article I recently published about prison films called "Lessons from Shawshank: Outlaws, Lawmen and the Spectacle of Punishment." Check out the latest edition of Captured Words/Free Thoughts for a collection of art, poetry and academia from inside US prisons. 

Today I revisit one of my favorite topics: opioids. The ongoing overdose crisis is due to the Iron Law of Prohibition, which states that any time a substance is illegal, the most potent form of it will become the most common form. Fentanyl replaced heroin because it is more potent, and therefore easier to smuggle. But that dynamic creates a lot of avoidable problems for drug users. 

For more about opioids in the brain and body, check out the PBS article and video, "How A Brain Gets Hooked on Opioids."
 
You can find my article "Our Pathway to the Legal Regulation of All Drugs" on Filter. 

You can listen to episode 102 for more about places where drugs are legal now.