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Phillip Smith

Phillip Smith is a senior writing fellow and the editor and chief correspondent of Drug Reporter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He has been a drug policy journalist for the past two decades. He is the longtime author of the Drug War Chronicle, the online publication of the non-profit StopTheDrugWar.org, and has been the editor of AlterNet’s Drug Reporter since 2015. He was awarded the Drug Policy Alliance’s Edwin M. Brecher Award for Excellence in Media in 2013.

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Mike Lewis and Shelby Floyd in a hemp field in Kentucky. (Photo credit: ) (Anna Carson Dewitt Photography, courtesy of Third Wave Farms)

In historic vote, the UN no longer considers cannabis one of the most dangerous drugs

Phillip Smith

Drug reform won a clean sweep in the 2020 election

Phillip Smith
A budtender (right) shows cannabis buds to a customer at the Green Pearl Organics dispensary on the first day of legal recreational marijuana sales in Desert Hot Springs, California. (Getty/Robyn Beck)

Will New Jersey be the next state to legalize marijuana?

Phillip Smith
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), officers arrest an undocumented Mexican immigrant during a raid (John Moore/Getty Images)

Is the time of the no-knock drug raid coming to an end?

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TO GO WITH NARCOTRAFICO AVISOS - This Sept. 7, 2010, photo provided by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows more than 110 kg of marijuana seized from a vehicle that attempted to enter the U.S. near San Diego. The driver of this vehicle had stated he responded to a newspaper ad allegedly placed by drug smugglers to recruit drivers to unwittingly take drugs across the border. Smugglers are advertising in Mexican newspapers for jobs as security guards, housecleaners and cashiers to recruit the unemployed and underemployed to drive drug-laden vehicles into the United States. Starting this week in April 2012, U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement began warning job applicants in two Tijuana newspapers that they may be unwitting targets for drug cartels. (AP Photo/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) (Associated Press)

As the global war on drugs fades away, the only people who benefited were drug traffickers

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(AP Photo/Dan Balilty, File) (AP)

Republican reefer reactionaries: Meet America’s worst 8 governors on marijuana reform

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(Getty/OpenRangeStock)

11 states where you might be voting on major marijuana reforms this November

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(Getty/meth-bag)

West of the Mississippi, meth — not fentanyl — is the deadliest drug

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(Getty/HAZEMMKAMAL)

The vaping crisis is real, but the government reaction to it bizarrely misses the point

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(Reuters/Fred Thornhill)

Guess which state has the worst drug laws in America

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Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (AP/Andrew Selsky)

Will Oregon be the first state to decriminalize all drugs?

Phillip Smith
In this June 23, 2016, photo, farmer Will Cabaniss stands with his crop on his 20-acre hemp farm in Pueblo, Colo. Three years into the nation's hemp experiment, the crop's hazy market potential is starting to come into focus. Most of it is being pressed for therapeutic oils, not processed into rope or fabric or more traditional products. Authorized for research and experimental growth in the 2014 Farm Bill, hemp is being grown this year on about 6,900 acres nationwide, according to industry tallies based on state reports. (AP Photo/Kristen Wyatt) (AP)

How hemp legalization has made it much harder to prosecute people for marijuana

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(AP/LM Otero)

Peyote and mescaline aficionados who used drugs to open new doors

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(Getty/meth-bag)

Why are stimulant-related deaths spiking in the U.S.?

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FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016 file photo, judges rate marijuana plants at the Oregon Cannabis Grower's Fair marijuana plant competition in Salem, Ore. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File) (AP)

Baby Boomers are taking up marijuana in a big way

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Obama signs the Fair Sentencing Act in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington DC, USA, 03 August 2010. (Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

First Step Act got Sonny Mikell out of life in prison. Why are prosecutors trying to send him back?

Phillip Smith
FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016 file photo, judges rate marijuana plants at the Oregon Cannabis Grower's Fair marijuana plant competition in Salem, Ore. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File) (AP)

Legal marijuana is a job creation machine

Phillip Smith
Psilocybin mushroom (Getty/Betka82)

In historic vote, Denver decriminalizes magic mushrooms

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A man grows marijuana plants at a farm. (Getty/Raul Arboleda)

Brother David’s quest to turn the cannabis industry truly green—and support activism

Phillip Smith
President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., Thursday, March 28, 2019 (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Is the Trump Justice Department trying to sabotage the First Step Act?

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(Getty/Scott Olson)

Joe Biden has a problem with pot

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States that legalized marijuana see dramatic drop in police traffic searches

Phillip Smith
FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016 file photo, judges rate marijuana plants at the Oregon Cannabis Grower's Fair marijuana plant competition in Salem, Ore. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File) (AP)

Could these be the next 8 states to legalize marijuana?

Phillip Smith
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Mexico’s next president looks for ways to end the drug wars

Phillip Smith
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