Long Reads for the Holidays

Recovery experts set up new ‘religion’ in Maine that may skirt drug laws

L EWISTON, Maine – On an 11-degree night here this month, an unconventional mass was held outdoors, next to a 2017 Honda parked on a street corner. The altar took the form of the small car’s hatchback trunk. The not-so-typical communion: sterile needles, the overdose antidote naloxone, and the rubber tourniquets used prior to drug injection.

Deep Systemic Change: My 10 Steps to Transform Addiction Treatment

As panel after after commission after white paper is put forward claiming to solve the overdose crisis, you’d think that somewhere there’d be a short, sensible guide for how to improve our health care system to better manage addiction and pain. But most of these reports and discussions dance around the edges and bureaucratic obstacles to change.

Demanding Harm Reduction – Reframe Health and Justice – Medium

At the Harm Reduction Conference this year, there was a lot of conversation which highlighted just how far harm reduction organizations are from sex worker rights’ organizations, with SESTA sitting firmly in that chasm.

‘Heroin Was My Life Preserver’ – LOVE/HATE – Medium

Vicki Allendorf noticed that her oldest son Zachary was losing weight. “Mom, I’ve just been working out,” he’d say. But Allendorf, who is Midwestern-nice with a big pinch of Type A, knew that her skater son was no gym rat. “He looked gaunt,” she said.

After Civil Commitment, Medication and Sense of Fairness Help Prevent Relapse | SPH | Boston University

Civil commitment for substance use is a legal provision in 33 states, where a judge can order someone into treatment-usually inpatient-because their substance use poses a high risk of harm. Civil commitment is increasing in the face of the opioid epidemic, but research has been limited on whether it improves clinical and legal outcomes.

I’m Worried About Our Community – Nigel Brunsdon – Medium

I’m worried about my community, I really am. This year (and a few previous ones) has been a hard one for many of us. We’ve lost some important members of the harm reduction community, and in the UK and the US political will at the government level to be proactive in promoting harm reduction interventions has been lacking.

The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement

Shawn Ginwright Ph.D. From time to time, researchers, policy makers, philanthropy and practitioners all join together in a coordinated response to the most pressing issues facing America’s youth. I’ve been involved with this process for long enough to have participated in each of these roles.

What I Found When I Applied Hundreds of Fentanyl Tests to Philly’s Street Drugs

Back in mid-2017 I embarked on a journalistic endeavor that, to my knowledge, has not been replicated. Through a contact in the New York harm reduction community, I purchased a box of 100 test strips developed by a Canadian firm to detect the presence of fentanyl in urine.

Medical Providers Are Failing Queer Men of Color Who Use Crystal Meth

Increasing rates of crystal methamphetamine use amongst Black and Latino queer men is often overlooked in the media. In response, Harm Reduction Coalition, BEAM (Black Emotional & Mental Health) Collective, and the Counter Narrative Projects have released a report the risks faced by this community and providing a valuable toolkit for care providers to them.

We Need to Talk About Benzodiazepines-Including Their Use in Drug Combinations

Opioids like heroin and fentanyl have grabbed the media and legislative spotlight- from soaring overdose fatalities to the misguided prescription restrictions and drug-induced homicide laws ostensibly intended to combat them. What’s glossed over is that our overdose crisis primarily relates to polysubstance use.

The Rage of Overdose Grief Makes It All Too Easy to Misdirect Blame

It was 4:45 am on March 13, 2016. My phone was ringing over and over, and there was loud banging. I woke up confused and terrified. My mother was hammering at my front door. I remember the look on her face and hearing words that I could not even process or understand.

Jamie Favaro’s Quest to Bring Online Naloxone Access Nationwide

What I’ve learned is that [syringe exchange programs] are everywhere,” says Jamie Favaro, founder of Next Harm Reduction. “Even if we’re unsanctioned, unfunded, there are underground syringe exchanges across this country. And I’m finding out about new ones every day.” Yet even all of these are not enough; there are still many people who can’t access them.