Judith Mernit

I’m a journalist living in Los Angeles, focusing on the environment, poverty, justice, and jobs, primarily for the news site Capital & Main (capitalandmain.com). I’ve also written for High Country News, The Atlantic, The American Prospect, Los Angeles, and Mother Jones, and my work for Capital & Main has been co-published with Fast Company, Salon, and Newsweek. As the recipient of a USC Health Impact Fund grant, I'll be working on a series of stories about access to harm reduction and drug treatment for people living in rural and underserved communities.

Articles

Kaiser says it halved the hypertension gap between blacks and whites over a decade — but how?

The gap between African Americans and whites in controlling hypertension decreased by 58% from 2009 to 2017. Explaining why is trickier.

Chronic Disease

A reporter learns to go slow and gain trust for series on harm reduction for drug users

"You can’t just waltz into a community of people who are marginalized and under threat, stick a microphone in their faces and start asking them questions," writes reporter Judith Mernit, a 2018 Impact Fund recipient.

Supervised injection stations at Vancouver's Insite. (Photo: Insite)

Community & Public Health

Health Equity & Social Justice

Healthcare Systems & Policy

Mental Health & Trauma

Science supports supervised injection sites. Why don’t politicians agree?

Safe injection facilities represent the highest ideal of harm reduction services for people who inject drugs, yet in the United States remain almost prohibitively controversial.

Environmental Health

Community Safety

Patient Safety and Ethics

Naloxone kit. (Photo: James Heilman, MD)

Health Equity & Social Justice

Healthcare Systems & Policy

Community & Public Health

Can harm reduction roll back an epidemic of drug-related deaths and disease?

The practice of harm reduction seeks not to shame people who use drugs into giving them up, but simply to provide them with the tools to improve their health.

Poverty and Class

Healthcare Regulation and Reform

Community Safety

Peer volunteer Jamie and program coordinator Jessica Smith at the Humboldt Area Center for Harm Reduction.

Community & Public Health

Health Equity & Social Justice

Healthcare Systems & Policy

Mental Health & Trauma

Drug users fight for acceptance in California’s deep north

Judith Lewis Mernit’s reporting on harm reduction in rural California was supported by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism’s 2018 Impact Fund.

Environmental Health

Healthcare Regulation and Reform

Community Safety

Patient Safety and Ethics

Health Equity & Social Justice

Healthcare Systems & Policy

Mental Health & Trauma

Community & Public Health

Drug Addiction: Controversial ‘harm reduction’ policy may lower death toll of opioids, meth

Harm reduction seeks not to shame people who use drugs into giving them up, but simply to provide them with the tools and support to improve their health.

Poverty and Class

Healthcare Regulation and Reform

Community Safety

Can harm reduction save lives and improve health of drug users?

Syringe exchanges and overdose kits aren’t always reaching poor and rural Californians, but advocates of the harm reducation approach are trying to make that happen.

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Reporting Topics

Judith Mernit

Articles

Kaiser says it halved the hypertension gap between blacks and whites over a decade — but how?

A reporter learns to go slow and gain trust for series on harm reduction for drug users

Science supports supervised injection sites. Why don’t politicians agree?

Can harm reduction roll back an epidemic of drug-related deaths and disease?

Drug users fight for acceptance in California’s deep north

Drug Addiction: Controversial ‘harm reduction’ policy may lower death toll of opioids, meth

Can harm reduction save lives and improve health of drug users?