Excellent John Oliver segment re: fentanyl OD prevention

[bimbi284]

This is a MUST-WATCH.

Please support your local Harm Reduction organization and/or drug policy reform organization if this speaks to you (happy to give recs of some to support, if there’s interest).

Direct link to YouTube vid for those who can’t see the tweeters:
www.youtube.com/embed/RMpCGD7b_H4

[estrellita]

We just watched this, and it was really interesting. I admit I had the same thought as that mayor about the facilities for safe drug use. It feels like enablement. But the fact that it can prevent an overdose death is huge. People are going to do drugs anyway, so why not make sure they're as safe as possible and have access to help if needed? I'll have to see if we have anything like this in my area (I doubt it, but who knows!).

[bronxgirl]

I just watched that segment earlier tonight. It was really good. Until we start viewing drug use as a medical issue and not a criminal or moral issue we're not going to be able to move past where we've been stuck for so long.

[loira]

I haven't watched the segment yet, but there is a big push in government of Canada messaging, with ads advising citizens who witness an overdose to stay, call for help, and administer Naloxone if they have it on them - even if witnesses have drugs on them, they'll be protected (or so says the ad).

My province has experienced record OD deaths throughout the pandemic. 😢

[neverfstop]

TFS - I'm glad he did a segment on it.

I read this book last year & it really opened my eyes on the importance of harm reduction as a first step. It was heartbreaking and also made me realize the really staggering number of people who have drug issues. www.amazon.com/Killing-Season-Paramedics-Dispatches-Epidemic/dp/B091ZH5C7P/

I also read this book about how oxy and other drugs took over the drug market thanks to the Sackler family and the failures of the FDA. Other infuriating read...
www.amazon.com/Empire-Pain-History-Sackler-Dynasty/dp/B08NFF9ZNY

[TR]

Oooh I can't wait to watch this! I wrote a paper on harm reduction for my healthcare law & policy class and I learned SO.MUCH. There is really no reason not to enact these IF your goal is to prevent harm. Unfortunately, the intent of policymakers is usually to just punish people who use intravenous drugs, not actually help them. Same as we see with abortion policies.

[wanderingback]

I’ll def watch this later.
I’m 100% for harm reduction and do that work regularly with my patients.

I will say for anyone looking to advocate or delve more in to policy more, pay attention to where harm reduction places like supervised use sites, methadone clinics, needle exchanges are. In my city the vast majority of these programs are concentrated in 1 neighborhood while drug use is a problem throughout the city. I’ll let you take a guess as to what race and ethnicity the people are that live in the neighborhoods with most of these programs. Shocker, mostly Black and Hispanic neighborhood.

So while progressive white people will say they want these programs, they don’t want them in their neighborhoods even though white people have plenty of substance use problems, so yeah, it’s fucked up.

[meganew]

wanderingback We had an issue with that in a neighborhood very close to ours- the city wanted to add a harm reduction site into an already established community health location and people flipped. It was ugly. I don’t understand it because I can’t believe there are people whose lives haven’t been touched by the opioid epidemic in some way.