Prohibited

Interviews outside of the United States Supreme Court, on June 25, 2022, the day after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling was released, upending 49 years of constitutionally […]

The hiatus is over! For this episode, Scott is joined by Stanford Fraser, a Public Defender in Prince George's County Maryland, and a recently announced candidate for State's Attorney. They […]

For this bonus episode of Prohibited, Scott joins Euguene Leventhal on the History of Drugs in Society podcast for their 23rd episode "Harm Reduction and Cannabis Policy". Stay tuned for the Prohibited's last four episodes of season 2 in March and April.

For this episode, Scott was joined by drug policy reform expert Sam Tracy to discuss the results of the 2020 elections and the various drug policy reform campaigns around the US, from psilocybin mushroom therapy, to drug decriminalization, to medical & adult use cannabis. They also speculate on what a Biden-Harris administration might mean for drug policy reform and why control of the senate may be the most important factor moving forward.

“This is the most important election of our lifetime” is something we hear every election cycle in this era of hyperpolarization. For this episode, Scott is joined by YouTube essayist and politico, Yusuf Takes, for a discussion of why that statement is true this time, in 2020.

For our first episode which is explicitly about gaming or gambling, Scott sat down with the organizers behind the three separate ballot initiatives to bring gaming & gambling to six sites in the state of Nebraska which already have race tracks for horse racing.

After having collected hundreds of thousands of signatures in order to appear on the November ballot, the campaign to bring medical cannabis to the state of Nebraska was abruptly ended when the state's Supreme Court struck down the ballot initiative's eligibility to appear. Scott is joined by John Cartier and State Senator Anna Wishart to discuss the fallout from the decision, the potential effects on all future ballot initiatives in the state, and what is next for cannabis law in Nebraska.

Prohibited returns to the topic of harm reduction with Garrett Reuscher, a drug policy reform veteran who currently works as a substance use counselor and mental health therapist in NYC. Garrett and Scott discuss how stigma and coercive systems conspire to make substance use more dangerous than need be. Later, they lighten the mood by going over some of Garrett’s social media rants which are inspired by his anger over society’s treatment of drug users and people experiencing substance use disorder.

For this Episode, Scott is joined by Jake Agliata from the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD). Jake is a human rights scholar and an advocate for the humane treatment of people who use drugs. Scott and Jake take a deep dive into the international human rights convention framework and how that framework informs policing across the globe before delving into how States engage with international definitions around human rights, which can often lead to state-sanctioned violence, profiling, and oppression.

For this episode, Scott is joined by Breya Johnson. Breya is the Education Co-Chair for the Black Youth Project 100, an abolitionist organization for Black youth engaged in intersectional advocacy. What would happen if we "prohibited" law enforcement in its current iteration? Breya and Scott discuss the “Defund the Police” movement, and explain why the movement for prison, jail, and police abolition must be rooted in a anti-racist, feminist, perspective which rejects imperial-racist-capitalist-ableist-cis-ableist-hetero-patriarchy.

For the season 2 premiere, Scott was joined by Sam Chapman, the Campaign Director for the Oregon Psilocybin Therapy ballot initiative campaign. If enacted by voters this November, it would create a system where adults over the age of 21 would be able to access psilocybin in a controlled setting where they would be guided by licensed psilocybin caregivers

Join us for Season 2 of Prohibited: a Podcast About Prohibition where we will explore topics ranging from vaping bans, to refugee bans, to immigration policy. We will also be revisiting some of our topics from Season 1 including cannabis, psilocybin , urban camping bans, and overdose prevention sites. Stay Tuned!

Host Scott Cecil interviews attendees of the inaugural Empyrean: People of Color Psychedelics Conference, the first conference of its kind, which took place in Washington D.C. in September 2019. What are the ways in which marginalized communities are prevented from accessing psychedelic substances? What are the implications of the medicalization of psychedelic substances? In what ways does racial hierarchy impact the current drug policy reform ad psychedelic therapy/access movements? We explore those questions and more in rapid-fire interviews. You don't want to miss this episode!

For this episode, we sat down with Kat Humphries, a homeless service provider & harm reduction professional to discuss ballot initiative "The Right to Survive", an ordinance which would have decriminalized resting, eating, sheltering oneself, or occupying a vehicle outdoors in Denver and effectively overturning the City's 'urban camping' ban.

This week we are joined by Mitchell Gomez, the Executive Director of the nightlife harm reduction & non-profit organization, DanceSafe. We discuss the mission of DanceSafe which includes providing unbiased […]

On April 20, the entire Prohibited team attended the 4th Annual National Cannabis Festival in Washington DC. Listeners will remember the creator of NCF, Caroline Phillips, from episode 1. This week's episode contains dozens of short, one-on-one interviews with attendees of the festival. This episode's outro features music from Backyard Band, captured from backstage at the Festival.

Host Scott Cecil attended to the SSDP2019 Conference in Chicago, Illinois where he had the opportunity to pull aside a few conference attendees to ask them to reflect on their experiences at this year's event, the largest gathering of youth activists in the world who are all working to end the war on drugs.

This week we are joined by Tricia Christensen with the Baltimore Harm Reduction Coalition. We discuss the efficacy of Overdose Prevention Sites (Supervised Consumption Facilities) and the politics behind trying to bring them to Baltimore City and the state of Maryland.

Scott was joined by Kevin Matthews the Director of the Denver Psilocybin Initiative, a voter-initiated campaign which would essentially decriminalize the possession and propagation of psilocybin mushroom for personal use by establishing the lowest police priority and defunding

This we are joined by Lyn Ulbricht, whose son Ross is serving a double life sentence (plus 40 years) for non-violent charges related to the infamous Silk Road website and online marketplace