Public Writing

Selected Essays & Commentary

The English titles and summaries below are editorial translations prepared for this website. The articles themselves were originally published in Estonian; each entry includes the original Estonian title and a link to the publication.

Drugs, Media & Drug Policy

Postimees Trinokkel · 29 August 2026

The Wrong Question in Drug Policy

Drug use is increasingly connected not only with escape or rebellion, but with the need to keep functioning under work, study and performance pressure. Drawing on drug trends, wastewater data and social theory, the essay argues that policy should ask not only which substance to prohibit next, but what kind of society produces demand for chemical acceleration and relief.

Original Estonian title: “Uimastipoliitika vale küsimus”

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Delfi · 14 August 2026

The Drug Market Works Like Fast Fashion: Two New Substances Every Week

Synthetic drug markets are changing faster than regulation can respond. The article compares this logic to fast fashion and argues that detection, communication and response must become faster too.

Original Estonian title: “Narkoturg töötab nagu kiirmood – turule tuleb kaks uut ainet nädalas”

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Postimees · 17 July 2026

When the Drug Market Starts to Look Like an Online Store

Drug markets have adopted the logic of platforms, online marketing and consumer culture. Prevention therefore has to address algorithms, persuasion and media literacy alongside substances and risks.

Original Estonian title: “Kui narkoturg hakkab meenutama e-poodi”

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Delfi · 10 July 2026

What If Drugs Are No Longer Just Substances?

Using EUDA future scenarios, the article asks what happens when psychoactive experiences are increasingly shaped by AI, neurotechnology, personalised compounds and digital systems.

Original Estonian title: “Narkootikumid, mis polegi enam ained? Tarkvara, mis juhib ja kujundab sõltuvusi? Eesti pole tulevikuks valmis”

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Postimees · 30 June 2026

Estonia as Europe’s Drug Testing Ground: Our Deaths as an Early-Warning System

An essay on Estonia’s role as an early-warning region for dangerous synthetic opioids, and on whether experience has been turned into influence in European drug policy.

Original Estonian title: “Eesti kui narko-katselaps: meie surnud on teistele riikidele hoiatussüsteem”

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Õhtuleht · 22 June 2026

How Should We Talk About Drugs? Complex Stories Resist Black-and-White Language

Drug use cannot be understood solely through crime, harm or moral failure. The essay argues for a more nuanced public language that can hold risk, pleasure, social context and lived experience together.

Original Estonian title: “KUIDAS RÄÄKIDA UIMASTITEST? Lugusid ei saa mõista, kui surume need mustvalgesse keelde”

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Postimees · 24 March 2026

Europe’s Wastewater Reveals More Than Drug Use

Wastewater data are used to read changing rhythms of contemporary European life: rising cocaine and ketamine, lower MDMA, and what these shifts may say about social acceleration, exhaustion and withdrawal.

Original Estonian title: “Narkootikumide jäägid reovees peegeldavad eurooplaste vaimset olukorda”

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ERR · 28 March 2026

Cocaine’s Moment in Estonian Public Debate

An essay on why cocaine has become culturally visible: new data, new narratives, new social contexts, and the relationship between stimulation, ambition, fatigue and accelerated everyday life.

Original Estonian title: “Kokaiini hetk Eesti avalikus arutelus”

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ERR · 28 February 2026

Addiction as a Political Narrative

This article explores how policy is shaped by the stories societies tell about addiction, contrasting moral tragedy narratives with approaches that foreground environment, social conditions and health.

Original Estonian title: “Sõltuvus kui poliitiline narratiiv”

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Postimees · 31 January 2026

Estonia’s Problem Is Not Drugs, but the Lack of Help

A critique of a policy landscape caught between punishment and treatment, arguing that the real issue is whether the state offers coherent support where punishment is already receding.

Original Estonian title: “Eesti probleem ei ole narkootikumid, vaid abi puudumine”

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ERR · 15 January 2026

Did Trump Say Cannabis Is Safe?

A reflection on how regulatory language becomes media narrative, using the US cannabis reclassification debate to show how “less restricted” can quickly be read as “safer”.

Original Estonian title: “Kas Trump ütles, et kanep on ohutu?”

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Delfi · 13 January 2026

Why Such Anger? The Backlash Against Drug-Policy Reform

An analysis of why a shift from punishment to treatment can provoke moral panic, and what this reveals about justice, fear and public understandings of addiction.

Original Estonian title: “Miks selline raev? Terav vastuseis justiitsminister Pakosta uimastisõltlaste poliitikale paljastab ühe mõtteviisi”

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Postimees · 11 January 2026

Journalism Needs Clear Language

An essay on the tension between anti-stigma terminology and journalism’s duty to be understandable, direct and precise in public communication.

Original Estonian title: “Meedia peab end väljendama selgelt – sõna „narkomaan“ on kõigile arusaadav”

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AI, Digital Society & Education

Õpetajate Leht · 25 August 2026

Source Criticism Has Fallen Behind AI

Classic source criticism teaches students to verify information across several sources. In an AI-mediated information environment, however, ChatGPT, Google AI summaries, health portals and social-media content may all reproduce the same underlying material. The article argues that source criticism must now include a new question: are the sources genuinely independent?

Original Estonian title: “Allikakriitika on tehisarule jalgu jäänud”

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ERR Novaator · 22 June 2026

Digital Inequality in One of the World’s Most Advanced E-States

A piece on the paradox of Estonia’s digital success: excellent services do not automatically translate into equal benefit, especially when evaluation skills and social resources remain unevenly distributed.

Original Estonian title: “Maailma parimas e-riigis on võimalused ebavõrdsed”

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Õpetajate Leht · 2 June 2026

Who Is Thinking When the Machine Answers?

Based on student interviews, this article examines how generative AI changes the rhythm of learning and why the most important question may be where a student’s thinking ends and the machine’s begins.

Original Estonian title: “Kes mõtleb, kui masin vastab?”

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Sirp · 29 May 2026

Algorithms and the Public Sphere

An essay on how algorithmic systems reward legibility and simplification, making complexity harder to see in journalism, culture and public life.

Original Estonian title: “Algoritmid ja avalik ruum”

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Õhtuleht · 22 April 2026

The Dangerous Trap: AI Tells You Exactly What You Want to Hear About Your Health

People may trust conversational AI because it feels attentive, calm and non-judgmental. The article explores why that makes it especially persuasive in health-related situations.

Original Estonian title: “Saatuslik lõks. Tehisaru ütleb su tervise kohta täpselt seda, mida tahad kuulda”

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Delfi · 8 February 2026

AI Does Not Insult or Lose Its Temper — So Why Is Its Politeness a Problem?

An essay on polite AI, emotional well-being, and why human interaction is not automatically the most supportive or least draining form of communication.

Original Estonian title: “Tehisaru ei solva ega ärritu – miks peame tema viisakust probleemiks?”

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Health Information, Knowledge & Society

Õhtuleht · 31 March 2026

Reading Alone Does Not Produce Ideas

An essay on reading culture, intellectual caution and the need for risk-taking in public thought — arguing that knowledge alone does not automatically generate new ideas.

Original Estonian title: “Lugemine üksi ideid ei sünnita”

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Delfi · 30 May 2026

People Have Been Misled About Health

Summary to be added. The source list contains the publication entry, but the article text was not included in the document used for this draft.

Original Estonian title: “Õppejõud: inimesed on tervise teemal lasknud end ära lollitada. Unustage „viis nippi“ või „see, millest arstid ei räägi“”

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