William Garriott

Statz & Garriott: Studying Rural Criminal Justice Through Ethnography — The Rural Reconciliation Project In Ethnographic Research: Immersing Oneself in the Rural Environment , M ichele Statz (Minnesota Medical School/Law) and William Garriott (Law, Politics, and Society, Drake University) present eth...

To understand rural criminal justice, researchers need more than stats—they need a way to grasp the social fabric of rural communities. Our latest digest highlights Michele Statz & @profwillgarriott.bsky.social‬’s case for ethnography as one such tool.

How opioid deaths tripled in Philly over a decade − and what may be behind a recent downturn After nearly a decade of annual upticks in overdose deaths, the city saw a drop in 2023, the latest data available. Something may finally be working − but what?

Buprenorphine cuts opioid withdrawal, cravings, and overdose risk by 50%—yet only 1 in 4 who need it get it. A family medicine provider examines the access gap in Philadelphia - and how some progress is being made. https://buff.ly/3EAy5np
Ben Cocchiaro, Drexel University #opioids

Not Just Sober-Curious, but Neo-Temperate How sobriety went from a radical social movement to a tool of self-optimization

www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

“Today’s sober-curious, by contrast, post on Instagram about how Dry January has reduced their inflammation, sharpened their jawline, and improved their sleep score. The sanctity of the home, or the overall moral health of society…appears to be less of a concern.”

“In the latter half of the 19th century, young people signaled their moral virtue by taking temperance pledges.”

Booze isn’t inherently bad in today’s version (health risks not withstanding), so much as self-optimization has become a moral imperative.

This new temperance movement (if you can call it that) doesn’t have the same ambitions as the one that ushered in Prohibition, but they both share a strong moral orientation.

Doing Dry January or just generally “sober curious”? You may be part of the Neo-Temperance movement. 🧵

But again, these outliers don’t reflect how most students experienced the course, and so shouldn’t be the basis for making major changes or questioning our effectiveness in the classroom.

To be sure, we shouldn’t ignore the outliers. A very positive comment reminds us that we’re making an impact. A very negative comment can show us an important truth even if it doesn’t feel good to receive it.

And if we’re not careful, we may start redesigning an entire course because one student hated it, or keeping everything the same because one student loved it.

The best advice I’ve gotten on course evaluations is to ignore the extremes, both positive and negative, and to focus on what all the other responses are saying. I’ve found this helpful because it’s the opposite of what our brains seem to want to do.

“Perhaps as they get more familiar with AI, the scientists will get happier with using it, but there are no guarantees.

‘A key, creative part of the process was automated,’ said Toner-Rodgers. ‘People just might be unhappy with that permanently.’”

“While many AI optimists believe the technology will reduce the number of tedious tasks people have to perform, the scientists felt that it took away the part of their jobs—dreaming up new compounds—they enjoyed most.”

Will AI Help or Hurt Workers? One 26-Year-Old Found an Unexpected Answer. New research shows AI made some workers more productive — but less happy.

Another AI future to contemplate: it makes people more productive but less happy.

Ballot measures to legalize recreational use of cannabis fail in Florida, North Dakota and South Dakota Two medical measures in Nebraska passed decisively but face legal challenges.

theconversation.com/ballot-measu...

All of which is to say, social trends and tendencies are real. But we shouldn’t overlook how politics shapes those same tendencies and trends.

The movement also faces pushback, particularly from public officials in red states, even if the majority of folks support legalization.

And now there’s an industry doing its own advocacy work as well.

Marijuana is the case I know best. Libertarianism has played a role, but only as part of a broader advocacy campaign that made strategic use of the courts, the media, and the ballot box.

Marijuana legalization, gambling legalization, gun rights expansion, and vaccine pushback are all the result of successful political mobilization.

When We Roll Back the Rules We cover America’s embrace of individual freedom.

I agree. Things have changed. But I don’t agree it’s social drift towards libertarianism.

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/b...

Iowa's prairies have roots across the state, including in some prisons Since 2000, a small team at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has been collecting, cleaning and distributing seeds to reconstruct prairies across the state. One of their longest running partner...

www.iowapublicradio.org/ipr-news/202...

How Syria Became the Middle East’s Drug Dealer Bashar al-Assad has propped up his regime by exploiting the Middle East’s love of an amphetamine called captagon.

I’ve read several stories recently about Syria’s role in the captagon trade and how it became a narco-state. Here’s some background.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

McKinsey & Company agrees to pay $650M for helping Purdue Pharma boost opioid sales McKinsey & Company consulting firm has agreed to pay $650 million to settle a federal investigation into its work for opioids manufacturer Purdue Pharma, according to court papers filed in Virgini...

apnews.com/article/mcki...

journal.culanth.org/index.php/ca...

Picture of the article “Attuning to the chemosphere” in the journal, cultural anthropology.

Just finished the @propublica.org article on domestic formaldehyde exposure and it immediately reminded me of this great article by Nicholas Shapiro.

Des Moines' mobile speed cameras are back on the roads. Here's when you could be ticketed. The Des Moines Police Department paused its mobile speed camera program to comply with a new state law. Here's where you'll find them this week.

Just heard someone call these the “coparazzi.”

www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/l...

It’s another step in the ongoing calibration of criminal law with the enforcement needs of the regulated marketplace. In this case, the crime in question is not possession per se, but violation of the requirement to use an odor proof container.

“[U]nlike the odor of burnt cannabis, the odor of raw cannabis coming from a vehicle reliably points to when, where, and how the cannabis is possessed — namely, currently, in the vehicle, and not in an odor-proof container.”