Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. As policymakers and others identify ways to address the opioid epidemic, a key tactic has been limiting opioid prescribing and promoting alternative pain remedies. Marijuana is one alternative that has been widely discussed, especially in light of the expansion of laws the allow medical use of marijuana and, recently, recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 and older. An impetus for these laws has been marijuana’s potential for pain relief. The expansion of medical and adult-use marijuana laws over time provides a unique opportunity to understand the impact of increased access to marijuana on opioid […]

Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. This week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a report on tobacco use among U.S. middle and high school students for the period 2011-2016. The report showed that use of tobacco over that timeframe did not change significantly, with 7.2% of middle school students and 20.2% of high school students indicating current use of a tobacco product. The most popular tobacco product among high school students is e-cigarettes, followed by cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco, hookah, pipe tobacco and bidis. Why should Indiana care about these latest findings? As noted in a study released by the Richard […]