Issue

Drug Crises

Militant Islamists escort drug convoys through northern Mali in exchange for hefty payments. The U.S. military and Honduran authorities use commando-style tactics to catch traffickers in the remote jungles of La Moskitia. A 15-year old from Ciudad Juarez, the most violent city in Mexico, chooses the clarinet over drugs after dropping out of school twice.

Drug Crises tells of men, women, and children who risk their lives—as drug users, traffickers, smugglers, and enforcement agents. You will find searing portraits of those who suffer from addiction, their family members, and loved ones. These are stories not only of lives lost and opportunities missed, but also of the fear and disruption that can overwhelm a community.

Pulitzer Center journalists expose corruption, extortion, and murder in an often violent war on drugs, fought in all corners of the globe, in Cuba and Crimea, in Bolivia and Burma, and from the Philippines to Tajikistan. They cover various recovery programs, such as opioid substitution therapy, as well as policy debates involving the roles of drug enforcement agents, the police, the military, and government. And they ask important questions: Are drug users criminals or patients in need of medical treatment?

 

Drug Crises

December 31, 2019 | Associated Press

China Has Pain Pill Addicts Too, but No One’s Counting Them

Erika Kinetz

Painkiller addicts in China remain largely invisible and, despite strict regulations, can turn to online black markets for opioids and other prescription drugs. The Associated Press found previously unreported trafficking of OxyContin and Tylox on e-commerce and social media platforms run by China’s largest technology companies.

Nuevo Laredo's Disappeared

J. Weston Phippen

In 2018, dozens of people vanished in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, including a U.S. citizen. The government blamed cartels. But in fact it was Mexico's marines, an elite force with close ties to the U.S.

Opioid Abuse: From U.S. Epidemic to Global Pandemic?

Claire Napier Galofaro, Kristen Gelineau, Erika Kinetz, Frances D’Emilio

As the U.S. tries to rein the prescription opioid bonanza that launched its epidemic, Big Pharma is expanding around the globe. Their trail includes a bribery scheme, addiction, and an unprepared world.

Rio's Evangelical Drug Gangs

Alex Cuadros

Rio de Janeiro's drug gangs are converting to evangelical Christianity. And in the favelas where they act as governments, their faith is becoming a kind of state religion.

The Biggest Mass Grave in Mexico

Jesse Alejandro Cottrell

A group of mothers with missing children just unearthed the biggest narco mass gravesite in Mexican history. This project documents their struggle to discover what happened their kids.

What Grows in Bloody Ground

Saul G. Elbein

Caught between a rising China and a retreating United States, the Philippine government launches twin wars against the forces it says threaten to tear it apart: Chinese drug cartels and ISIS.

In Lazarat, the Fall of a Pot Empire

Nate Tabak

The residents of Lazarat, Albania, once grew $6 billion of marijuana per year under the nose of the state. What happens when that pot empire goes up in smoke?

Popular
December 14, 2016 | All Grades

Migration and Refugees Lesson Plans

Pulitzer Center Education

The following lesson plans for middle school teachers, high school teachers and college professors introduce reporting connected to migration and the experiences of refugees.

April 10, 2016 | College

Human Rights Reporting

Elva Gomez De Sibandze

Students will critically examine the legal, professional and moral obligations of journalists as witnesses to all kinds of human rights violations.

April 12, 2019 | Project news, Education news, Awards

IWMF Awards to 2 Pulitzer Center Student Fellow Alums

Elana King-Nakaoka

Student fellow alum Pat Nabong from the Medill School of Journalism was named a Gwen Ifill Fellow by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF), while Neeta Satam, student fellow alum from the Missouri School of Journalism was awarded an IWMF Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice in the Americas grant.