The United States spends billions of dollars each year to fight the drug trade, but demand for illegal substances persists. Increasing acceptance of medical marijuana and horrific drug violence in Mexico are making many people skeptical about the 鈥淲ar on Drugs.鈥� At the recent Summit of the Americas, leaders of some South American countries criticized the U.S. for its staunch support of the war. Is public sentiment moving us into an era without a war on drugs? Host Frank Stasio ponders that question with , assistant professor of history at the University of Cincinnati and author of the book 鈥淗ome Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico's War on Drugs鈥�(UNC Press/2012); and , an economics professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of the book, 鈥淒rugs: America鈥檚 Holy War鈥� (Routledge/2008).
Alex Granados joined The State of Things in July 2010. He got his start in radio as an intern for the show in 2005 and loved it so much that after trying his hand as a government reporter, reader liaison, features, copy and editorial page editor at a small newspaper in Manassas, Virginia, he returned to 瓜神app. Born in Baltimore but raised in Morgantown, West Virginia, Alex moved to Raleigh in time to do third grade twice and adjust to public school after having spent years in the sheltered confines of a Christian elementary education. Alex received a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also has a minor in philosophy, which basically means that he used to think he was really smart but realized he wasn鈥檛 in time to switch majors. Fishing, reading science fiction, watching crazy movies, writing bad short stories, and shooting pool are some of his favorite things to do. Alex still doesn鈥檛 know what he wants to be when he grows up, but he is holding out for astronaut.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's 瓜神app Director.