Drug Legalization Series · Part 13
Drug Legalization Series Part 13: Mental Health, Housing, and Despair
Part 13 explores drug addiction and homelessness, mental illness, and housing-first recovery in the drug legalization and regulation series.
Topic
Reentry
Essays on prison reentry, the overdose window after release, housing, and what evidence-based reentry support actually requires.
Reentry is the moment the system claims success and reality says otherwise. The first weeks after release carry the highest overdose risk. Housing instability, untreated mental health, and felony stigma stack on top of each other. These posts focus on the reentry window we keep wasting — and on policy changes that would give people a real second chance instead of a revolving door. If you run a reentry or recovery program, see how these ideas connect to ReturnPath, the facilitator-led curriculum built on the same lived experience.
All posts All topics Recovery Reentry & Policy
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Drug Legalization Series · Part 12
Drug Legalization Series Part 12: The Reentry Window We Keep Wasting
Prison release overdose risk peaks in days and weeks after release. Which programs actually cut overdose, recidivism, and instability.
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Drug Legalization Series · Part 7
Drug Legalization Series Part 7: Recovery Lockbox: Fund Addiction Treatment Without Raising Taxes
A recovery lockbox captures enforcement savings and regulated-market revenue to fund MOUD, housing, and reentry — using FY 2025 budget realities.
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Drug Legalization Series · Part 3
Drug Legalization Series Part 3: The Hidden Sentence
Being convicted of a drug felony: voting rights, gun rights, and the permanent sentence that is rarely talked about. Part 3 in the drug legalization series.
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Drug Legalization Series · Part 2
Drug Legalization Series Part 2: How Drug Criminalization Creates a Permanent Underclass
Drug felony consequences go far beyond court — employment and housing barriers, ruined credit, and traps that follow people long after release.