Investigative journalist & nonfiction author
Julie
Wernau
Julie Wernau is an investigative journalist who spent more than a decade at The Wall Street Journal. She is currently writing a book for Crown.
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I.
Selected journalism
The Wall Street Journal
2025The Rise and Fall of the ‘Napa Valley of Cannabis’Pueblo, Colo., had high hopes for a legal-marijuana boom; financial troubles now plague the industry.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
2025Drug Rehabs Lure In Patients for Insurance Money—Then Leave Them on the StreetOperators promise high-end treatment, help addicts sign up for insurance then pile on charges for little in return, say former patients and insurers.
The Wall Street Journal
2023Flesh-Rotting ‘Tranq’ Undermines Fight Against FentanylXylazine, an animal tranquilizer, is infiltrating the illicit drug supply in North Carolina and other states.
II.
Audio reporting
Tradeoffs · Oct. 2026
States Race to Get the Word Out About New Medicaid Work RequirementsCity and state officials, health insurers and advocates are ramping up efforts to reach millions of low-income people at risk of losing their health insurance.
Listen →Tradeoffs · July 2026
Meet the Man Launching Trump’s Medicaid Work Requirements Months EarlyNebraska Medicaid Director Drew Gonshorowski says the state’s data capabilities put it in a strong position to quickly implement the historic changes. Advocates and researchers warn that eligible people may still fall through the cracks.
Listen →Tradeoffs · July 2026
States Want to Bring Medicaid Behind Bars. Federal Changes Are Making That Harder.Funding cuts and program changes required by H.R. 1 are forcing states to rethink bipartisan efforts to bring Medicaid into jails and prisons.
Listen →Tradeoffs · June 2026
Medicaid Overhaul Complicates States’ Plans to Bring Care Into Jails and PrisonsFunding cuts and program changes required by H.R. 1 are forcing states to make hard choices about the future of this bipartisan experiment.
Listen →Tradeoffs · Feb. 2026
Immigration Enforcement’s Twin Threats to Health CarePatients are afraid to show up to medical appointments, while workers are being detained, deported or losing their visa statuses.
Listen →Tradeoffs · Feb. 2026
Mental Illness Left Their Loved Ones on the Streets. California’s Big Fix Hasn’t Helped.How Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ambitious plan to force more people into mental health treatment left many families still searching for help.
Listen →
III. Forthcoming from Crown
A Good Drug Gone Wrong
Marijuana legalization was sold as a promise of economic vitality, social justice, and medicine. But in the rush to legalize cannabis, America was unprepared for the drug it would become. This book traces the transformation of marijuana into an industrialized, high-potency drug, shaped by commercial forces that outpaced science, medicine, and regulation, leaving Americans to grapple with addiction and mental illness they never saw coming.
About the book →Tips, inquiries, conversation
wernau.media@gmail.com