Welcome to IHRC's new blog, a space for learning about harm reduction and exploring voices from the harm reduction community (and around the internet). Here's what we're reading and discussing this month.
Cops in Harm Reduction: An Insult? Or Incremental Positive Change?
Peter Sadler looked like a lost member of the Beastie Boys, but as soon as he spoke it was obvious that he was a cop. As we sat in the hotel lobby at the 2018 National Harm Reduction Conference in New Orleans, I tried to reconcile his attire-a black DOPE Project hoodie and Utah Naloxone cap-with the straight posture and authoritative voice of a 20-year law enforcement veteran.
Charging ‘Dealers’ with Homicide: Explained
In our Explainer series, Justice Collaborative lawyers and other legal experts help unpack some of the most complicated issues in the criminal justice system. We break down the problems behind the headlines-like bail, civil asset forfeiture, or the doctrine-so that everyone can understand them.
Switzerland’s Experiment With Addiction Treatment
” I started taking heroin as a way of coping with my psychological problems,” said David, 50, an addict for 25 years. “It destroyed me. I lost my job as a watchmaker. I ‘borrowed’ money from my girlfriend, and my friends. I ended up on the street.
Street level activists are leading the fight against fentanyl deaths – and it’s working
St. Ann’s Corner of Harm Reduction sits on a busy section of Westchester Avenue in the Bronx, in the shadow of an elevated train track. Inside the facility, patrons can come in from the cold, get a hot meal, and sit in a recliner watching TV or chatting with friends.
The making of an opioid epidemic
The long read: When high doses of painkillers led to widespread addiction, it was called one of the biggest mistakes in modern medicine. But this was no accident
My Relationships With Drugs Vary Wildly: We Must Recognize Spectrums
For the last 14 years I have bounced around nearly every part of the drug-use spectrum, though I’ve rarely stayed at the extreme of total abstinence for long. My experiences have ranged from smoking pot out of a bong made from a hummingbird feeder, found in the top of a closet of a friend’s house at a sleepover when we were 14 years old, right through to injecting heroin and crack cocaine.
This Man Was Devoted to Making Life Safer for People With Addiction
Dan Bigg with his dog Tucker / Courtesy of Suzanne Carlberg-Racich Dan Bigg saved tens of thousands of lives, perhaps hundreds of thousands. Mothers, daughters, sisters, brothers, sons, fathers-countless loved ones survived addictions thanks to the work of the Chicago native and those he inspired.
The Harm Reduction Movement: Bigger Than Ever, But Facing Threats
If numbers gauge the health of a movement, this one is flourishing. Two thousand people crammed into a vast hotel ballroom in New Orleans on October 18 for the opening of the National Harm Reduction Conference- a record for the event and also, organizers reckon, for any harm reduction conference in the world.
Does Health Insurance Cover Rehab?
Christopher Lemercier/Unsplash This is part of Tonic’s Healthcare Guide series. See the other guides here , and find the glossary here . Download the PDF version of this guide here and a find a PDF of the master document here.
