Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. In July 2019, the CDC released preliminary estimates that showed, for the first time since 1990, a decline in fatal drug poisonings (overdose deaths) in the United States—by approximately 5 percent from 2017 to 2018. This decline is borne out in Indiana and Marion County as well. In Indiana, data from the CDC and provisional data from the Indiana State Department of Health show a decline of more than 10%. Marion County, which has the highest fatal drug poisoning count in the state, saw a similar decline, according to data from the IU Public Policy […]

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. The dangers of smoking are well-known. Smokers are more likely to die from lung cancer, heart disease, lung disease and other deadly illnesses, not to mention the health risks caused by secondhand smoke exposure or the impacts to newborns caused by smoking among pregnant women. Yet smoking still persists—for example, more than 1 in 5 Hoosiers currently smoke—in large part due to the addictive effects of nicotine. More than two-thirds of smokers want to quit, but nicotine keeps smokers smoking and consuming the other carcinogens and toxicants for the long term. What if it was […]