Scalawag will no longer be publishing the weekly Mobtown Redux column, as its creator, Logan Hullinger, has passed away.
Logan created Mobtown Redux in 2023 and committed himself to a "radical, advocacy-based approach" to journalism, covering the rights of drug users and reporting responsibility on addiction, drug policy, and the harm reduction movement in Baltimore, Maryland—the epicenter of the overdose crisis in the US.
As an independent journalist and recovering addict, Mobtown Redux was a personal passion project that aimed to shift narratives around drug users and the inequities they face. He wrote about drug use, harm reduction, and the War on Drugs with the compassion and care that it deserves, and that too few journalists grant in their coverage. Logan's work emphasized the need for decriminalization, pinpointed the anti-Black racism at the heart of the War on Drugs, and interrogated the various ways the overdose crisis is sustained through dangerous policies.
We were incredibly privileged to have connected with Logan. We met him at a convening hosted by the Movement Media Alliance last year and immediately fell in love with his work and the passion with which he spoke about it. We are grateful that he trusted Scalawag to be a home for his vital work, and heartbroken that our partnership was cut short.
At Scalawag, we publish stories and work with our communities through a harm reduction lens. A core principle of harm reduction is recognizing that relapse can very well be a part of someone's recovery—and that, tragically, it can sometimes be fatal. Logan was very open about his struggles with substance use and bipolar disorder. His family shared that he would want people to know the cause of his passing, in hopes of continuing in death what he did in life: being transparent about the realities of drug use and underscoring the necessity of the harm reduction movement.
Donate to GoFundMe to help support Logan's family, and read more of his indispensable coverage at Mobtown Redux, Baltimore Beat, and Filter.
"Prosecutorial policy rooted in the decades-old War on Drugs is all but guaranteed to undermine Baltimore's overdose crisis response for another four years, foreshadowing innumerable preventable deaths and widespread suffering."
"Either the city destroys the lives of drug users by feeding them to the carceral beast, or it interrupts the supply and kills them through that means.
The fact that law enforcement has essentially been given carte blanche to continue its assault on drug users in the name of public safety is not only nonsensical but incredibly dangerous."
"Unlike previous versions of the legislation, it would not decriminalize paraphernalia. Advocates are instead pushing for a streamlined bill this year that would repeal laws criminalizing paraphernalia entirely, bypassing the inevitable—and likely lengthy—debates over what items fall under that umbrella."
"The city's recent focus on the mass overdose protocol…won't stabilize the increasingly lethal drug supply, and it sure as hell won't shift the city toward a more compassionate approach to drug use as long as the police prioritize crackdowns with their whopping $613 million war chest.
The words of those in power mean little, given how the city has positioned itself against drug user liberation. Instead, they've bankrolled a system that forces drug users into the shadows, jail cells, or graves."
"The needs of Baltimoreans who are unhoused, use drugs or are in crisis have been discarded in pursuit of bolstering the police state and allowing the cancer to fester. The brazen disregard of calls for social reforms, replaced with seemingly unlimited funding for the police force, is what Baltimore deems 'public safety.'"