Drug User Think by Urban Survivors Union

February 2020

DRUG USERS THINK

February 2020 Spring issue

what's inside this issue?

ask a sex worker

Bigg love west virginia

overdose awareness day

2019 international drug policy reform conferenceÂ

sink or swim

WORDS OF INSPIRATION

National Drug User Union Convening

OUR FLOWER IN THE GUN

February 2020 Spring issue

ADVOCACY ACADEMY

no cease fire in site

protect yourself drug-induced homicide

2019 Annual Report

This issues contributors Alex MORSELLE CUPCAKE JUDY CHANG knina strichartz Michael galipeau louise vincent

editors

knina strichartz Michael galipeau CATY SIMON 03

DRUG USERS THINK FEBRUARY 2020

ASK A SEX WORKER, PART 1 alex and morselle cupcake

People are deeply curious about, disgusted with, concerned for, and threatened by sex workers, and those of us who use drugs get a few extra doses of stigma thrown on top. “Woke” sex workers are therefore continuous educators, and it leads to burnout fast. With so much misinformation and ignorance we are constantly in Sex Work 101-mode, defending our very humanity. In this climate, an “Ask a Sex Worker”-style advice column can be fraught with missteps. Sex workers who answer such questions as their public sex worker personas the have legitimate need to keep answers sexy and fun, while very low income, street-based sex workers are often not enlisted as participants. Activists who volunteer for such columns struggle to make sure that we aren’t speaking on behalf of all sex workers, and it’s always an effort to avoid the “sex workers are basically slaves” narrative without veering into “we are all Happy HookersTM” territory. We hope we dodged most of these potholes, but there’s never a perfect balance. The issues involved in writing this article speak to larger issues in drug user organizing. We need workers to come out so that we can fight stigma together. We know we can’t do that if we are hidden-that’s why user unions are so powerful. But organizations must make themselves safe spaces for us; as sex workers we face additional risk of arrest or serious loss of one kind or another in coming out. We have been burned many times. We won’t come out if communication with us isn’t thoughtful or services offered aren’t based on our real needs. We can’t be in a constant place of providing basic education to others in our movement. What all this means is that we need a strong position within Urban Survivors’ Union and other movements. There can’t just be one token sex educator in the body of your harm reduction organization; we need enough activists so that no one person shoulders the entire weight of defending our humanity. We need people from all walks of sex work involved, and it might mean providing resources to those more devastated by the criminalization of drugs and sex work. After all, if people are fighting for their survival, it’s hard for them to take time to write columns or attend conferences.

We, Alex and Morselle Cupcake, are genuinely grateful to answer these questions you have asked; we understand how crucial our voices are as drug-using, sex working leftists. Ultimately, we understand that other leftists need and want to be educated on important topics, and we’d rather it be from us than from an anti-trafficking organization or a liberal non profit. Before we begin, you need to know that we can’t possibly speak for all sex workers, and that we present ourselves as the imperfect-but-awesome human beings trying to speak our truths that we are: Alex has done sugar, escorting, pro-subbing, proDomming, a tiny bit of cam work, and both high-end escorting and low-income escorting. She’s also an MSW and advocate for survivors of domestic violence with a wealth of experience all over the field of social work. She has abandoned the liberal non-profit circuit to do unofficial harm reduction with her immediate community. Her personal experiences with chronic homelessness, mental illness, disability, gender dysphoria, and sex work inform her leftist views while she pulls from her formal education and experience as a therapist to serve her fellow drug users and sex workers. Morselle Cupcake does phone sex and camming. She also sells content (ie porn clips and good old-fashioned nudes) made personally by request. She is a peer

specialist who counsels people who use opiates. Many experience homelessness, have co-occurring mental health challenges, and do sex work. Harm reduction shapes everything she does: she is all about meeting people right where they are and supporting folx in their self-defined goals. Her favorite people use drugs and sell sex and she considers it a privilege to work amongst her community. Do you like your job? What do you like or not like about being a sex worker? Alex: We had a wide list of questions to pull from (seriously, we’ve heard it all) but we included this one because it’s so often the first thing we are asked when someone finds out we are sex workers. If you direct questions to our worker-persona twitter accounts, you are highly likely to get bouncy, fun “I love my job!” replies. And some of us do. But to some of us, sex work is a veritable nightmare. Not usually one we need to be rescued from by some well-meaning Captain Save-aHo, but one that we wish we could end in the same way we wish we could end capitalism. Asking this might bring up a huge variety of potentially triggered emotional responses in the innocent sex worker you are questioning, so my advice is: don’t. That said, I will still go ahead and answer it: I love being able to say I am a sex worker. It’s a very important part of my identity, and it has been since 2014. If you don’t know that I am a sex worker, you don’t know me. Just like you don’t really know me if you can’t be trusted with the fact that I am queer and non-monogamous; I would have to be hiding my partners from you! These labels are all parts of my sexual identity. Labels aside, my relationship to sex and sex work itself has changed over time. Most of my life I have been attracted to men, but I have found little pleasure in fucking them; clear communication of my needs and desires usually elicits either hostility or no response at all. In the past, I was also a lot less able to stand up for myself; in trying to please these assholes, I found myself repeatedly conceding to sex without condoms. In 2014, I ended an eight-year sexless marriage with a man who really didn’t like pussy very much and a oneyear relationship with a boyfriend who made me feel simultaneously sexually inadequate and used just for sex. I fell in love with two trans masculine partners, and we proceeded to have magical, powerful sex. I began sex work at the same time, and I loved how my relationship to sex changed. I was using my pussy for myself for once; I was making bank while having a fantastic time back at home. I demand condoms for vaginal and anal sex as a sex worker; having the framework of being a sex worker somehow made me

able to stand up for myself. I also got to practice going on lots of first sugar dates, and got to become very comfortable being rejected or rejecting others. I liked being a Sexy Worker, and I enjoyed the mystique. Since it felt like an act for purely financial gain, it didn’t even really trigger my gender dysphoria. I called myself a reformed slut (ie, a whore). As time went on, the shiny newness of sex work wore off. One of my biggest problems has been that the men who have hired me have been--without exception--unable to interface with either me as a human being or me as the persona I put forth. They instead project all sorts of motives and desires onto me, unable to handle me as anything but their own pre-constructed Sex Worker. This makes everything from the screening process to kissing tedious and painful (oddly, fucking is the least problematic part for me), and over time I have become a person who is almost never capable of genuine sexual response to cis men. That doesn’t mean I want to quit. I am disabled, and honestly, barring a revolution that ensures me income, housing, and medical care, sex work is pretty much the only consistent job I can handle. In the end, what I “want” or “like” is irrelevant to me, just as it is to many sex workers. Maybe that’s one reason so many of us hate this question. Morselle Cupcake: I love being a sex worker! I love my community and being with other Sexy Workers engaged in activism and harm reduction work. Sex work itself, though, is always a mixed bag. It takes resilience and strength, so self care is crucial. In some ways, it's like any other service industry job; some days I like it, some days I don't. I like certain clients a lot more than others. Sometimes I'm in a kinky mood and my job is really fun, and at other times I'm in a stressed out space and it's just a way to make money. Unfortunately, I have to do it whether or not I'm stressed out because I need to put food on my table. Most of the time I power through whatever is going on, but there are times where I am not mentally stable or physically well enough to work and this affects my ability to care for myself and my family. I certainly don't like that sex work is criminalized. Without protections and with the threat of arrest, people who engage in sex work face violence. Sex work is especially dangerous in marginalized and low-income communities; people of color and trans folx who are doing street-based work are disproportionately affected. Stigma, danger, and active discrimination block our access to basic human rights such as safe and affordable housing and healthcare.

What is a weird or interesting client story you like to tell? Like a story about your best client ever or a hilariously terrible client? Morselle Cupcake: Heads up: It can be completely exhausting to be asked for client stories. It can come across as voyeuristic and it definitely makes me feel awkward to be asked this by someone I'm not super close to. When I feel safe, though, telling these stories is something I enjoy, and I am upfront about doing sex work to most people in my life at this point (though coming out has certainly been a process). I will share with you a couple of my favorite fetishes/types of clients: I am a total switch but my favorite clients are submissive. I love doing small penis humiliation! I love to torture and make fun of all the little dicks; it’s hilarious and genuinely gives me so much pleasure. I find these clients to be kind, sweet, generous little babies; I love them so much!! Then there are my “sweater guys” who love my ultra-soft sweaters, leg warmers, and cute little socks. It's incredibly fun to dress up and put on a show for them. The exhibitionists can also be fun … and I'll just leave that up to y'all's imagination. Alex: Okay Morselle, my imagination is now running! I have never had an exhibitionist client, though I was once paid by a guy to be an exhibitionist myself and I think I lost the client solely because I loved it more than he did! But here’s a different story: Once I was hired as a sugar baby by a nerdy white guy named Noah. He was a small-time Pacific Northwest weed guy, but “small” still meant he was rolling in dough like he had never before imagined. He thought himself a genius (bragged about his 140 IQ), wanted to be like Jay Z, and had incredibly loser friends who did things like blow smoke in their pitbulls’ noses and hung around only because Noah was loaded. He brought me, clad in a little black dress, to the VIP area of a club where some mediocre rapper was performing. We had bottle service and cocaine, and I proceeded to powder my nose, mildly flirt with his friends’ girlfriends, and hang on Noah’s every word. In short, I did a great job

partying like the airhead I was paid to be … until my spark of genuine warmth began attracting everyone’s attention and I held the crowd for a moment too long. Noah became jealous. He decided the way to regain all the attention he had purchased was to out me as a whore. It immediately backfired as his friends judged him for “having to hire someone,” and I decided to handle it proudly; Noah had basically handed the mic to me to politely and sexily field a broad variety of questions from a surprisingly respectful audience. I knew I had permanently lost the client, so for kicks I gave everyone a chance to do blow off a hooker’s tits. I even counseled Noah in my preferred technique, underhandedly outing him as not-quite-the-Hugh-Hefner he imagined himself to be (Don’t be shy! Don’t use a straw! Just take a bump. Really get close to the boob.). Noah actually fell asleep on the leather couch next to me at one point, but I carried on balancing being the fun persona I had stepped into to start the night and a leftist sex worker educator. Now that I have answered the question, it’s my duty to agree with Morselle and inform you that lots of sex workers hate this type of question. While some of us love to tell our whore stories (I sometimes relish telling the above tale), this question is often asked in incredibly fetishizing ways. Not to mention, it’s just plain exhausting to those who have been sex workers for years. Plus, my actual terrible clients were not hilariously so, but violently so, and asking about client stories is as likely to provoke a flashback as a laugh. Morselle Cupcake: I LOVE this Alex! And, Readers, if you get a chance to talk to activist sex workers, why not ask them about their organizing efforts instead? That makes sense. In that case: What are best practices for organizing sex workers? Morselle Cupcake: First, ask yourself why you want to organize around sex work: if it's because you want to give sex workers the resources we need to be safe and reduce harm-great! If it's because you have a rescue mentality and feel that you need to save us--please don't. If the case is that you want to lend resources as an ally, here's a good way to do it: Ask us what we want

and don't assume. If you are doing outreach on a track, ask the workers what items they need. When I do outreach I bring condoms, lube, Plan B, pregnancy tests, Summer's Eve wipes, Purell, fentanyl test strips, clean use supplies, hats, gloves, hand warmers, snacks, and water, and we continue to add to the list as people request certain items. We also stop carrying things if people are not using them. We really talk to the community every night when we're out, asking people specifically if there is anything that we don't have that they could use that we should add to our supplies. Follow up matters: we actually make changes based on what people tell us. It’s also helpful to make sure outreach efforts are peer-led and peer-run, meaning current and former sex workers should be informing the work, doing the work, and--importantly--getting paid for the work. Paying sex workers to do activism in our own communities is essential; we must have a hand in shaping community interventions, because we alone know what resources we need to keep ourselves and each other safe. We can’t do this if we are struggling to feed our children. Alex: That’s amazing Morselle. I didn’t have a lot more to add myself, so I have to thank Caty Simon, the Sex Worker Organizing Group liaison with USU, for these further suggestions of ways to work with sex workers within your harm reduction organizations:

no different. Plus, we have already spent time figuring out what works. The ins and outs of sex work are incredibly complicated and you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to help us. When organizing sex workers, what about people who don’t identify as sex workers? Some folks in rural areas where there isn’t robust organizing may be especially tricky to reach and might not feel empowered by the word “sex worker,” and people who trade drugs for sex often don’t consider themselves sex workers either. How do we reach them? Morselle Cupcake: I don't have a lot of experience with this as I live in a densely populated city, but I do have some experience working with organizations that do mobile harm reduction work and I believe that the key to outreach in rural areas is the mobile resource center. This is often just a team that drives around and does outreach. At first you might try just looking for and talking to people who look like they could use resources. Eventually, as people get to know you, you will develop a route and probably make stops at people's houses. You might find a church in the area that will host you as a drop-off point, but this can be

First, if you have resources and infrastructure, you should be sharing with us. We are already in your organization; we just may not be well organized within it. If you have political capital such as the ability to interface with law enforcement or to speak with politicians to advocate for decriminalization of sex work, use it (We have an especially hard time working with cops--we’re terrified; I personally would rather be raped on a job by a client than raped by a cop and then arrested.). Use resources to back us against laws and policies designed to harm us. If you have funding, hire us and fund our alreadyexisting projects. And you will need to take extra steps to help us get access to conferences and decision-making spaces. One important point, if you want to help sex workers and are not one yourself, is to find a sex worker organization that is worker-led and already happening. Community involvement is a huge component of effective harm reduction work. We know that communities can help heal themselves far more effectively than outsiders who adopt a benevolent but patronizing role, and sex workers are

challenging in rural areas as there may be little support for drug-using sex workers (and this is especially true the further into rural areas you go). Meeting people where they're at is very important in this work, especially in areas where people don't necessarily identify as sex workers. I would not bring up sex work unless the people you are interacting with do and I would follow their lead on how they want to be addressed. Honestly, I don't think it's important to know whether a person does sex work or not. When you find someone who wants to engage with you, I would suggest you carry harm reduction supplies--including safe-sex supplies--and just offer everything that you have. Carry a menu if possible, or be able to clearly verbally list what you have using a very simple script such as “Hello, [introduce yourself], I am out here doing outreach and handing out supplies such as [describe supplies] … Could you or someone you know use any?” It's really that simple. Ask the people you are supporting to spread the word to their friends who might be able to use your services. Make sure they tell them where to find or contact you. Word of mouth is a great way to reach those you may not otherwise be able to find. Carry business cards so that the people you engage can spread the word to their friends that you are a trusted resource. Alex: You definitely don’t want to assume everyone feels comfortable being called a sex worker! There are lots of reasons why someone might not want to, and your response has to vary based on the situation. If you already have an organization running and are offering services to sex workers and someone comes along and wants access to those services but has a story like “I’m not actually a sex worker,” consider just giving them access to the services with few questions asked. Many of your participants have had sex for drugs, and that definitely counts--even if they don’t personally count it. Also, some people feel more empowered when they pretend they are gaming a naive non-profit. They don’t want charity, and that’s what they’d get by admitting they are actually a prostitute in a desperate situation, and I am cool letting them have a narrative that helps them cope. Some people just don’t identify as sex workers because it’s not the term people in their communities use. They may totally support sex workers, may even celebrate sex workers, but just simply not feel they meet the definition. To reach

people in these communities, simply use language that’s accessible to their groups. For example, in the case of gay men who have sex in exchange for meth, you would be most likely to make a difference if you were a community member yourself with culturally appropriate methods of outreach. That’s not me, so you don’t see me do much proselytizing on curbs in front of gay clubs. Remember: people don’t have to agree they are sex workers to agree to HIV testing or taking PrEP! Some people don’t identify as sex workers specifically because of internalized whorephobia. Sugar babies are one example. Some sugar babies may swear up and down that they are much, much better and classier than prostitutes. This can be hazardous to their own safety. Since they aren’t “sex workers,” they don’t really need to use condoms; they may feel they have to insist that they are in love with their sugar daddies. They also don’t have the same frameworks that escorts often have; escorts know how to identify time wasters, may be willing to check and use “bad date” lists, and have websites that set expectations. Escorts have menus and know in their heads what they want to charge per act or date. Sugar babies may be isolated, not share industry knowledge, and have a hard time setting clear expectations with clients, leading to dangerous situations. If sugar babies were your target audience, a group specifically to support sugar babies would help them feel more comfortable. Online support groups can be a great way to reach multiple people who are geographically isolated. Whether in person or online, such groups would do well to politically educate even as they provide needed services; in these situations, a lack of political education means that most traditional routes for harm reduction of sex work have been stigmatized in the community. Resources for how to navigate common situations that sugar babies encounter would be especially helpful, as there are more and more naive sugar babies born per minute in our current climate where young women increasingly don’t have another choice if they are to make it through college. Dancers (strippers) are also stereotyped as being whorephobic, though they have more industry norms to rely on and better ways to share information so whorephobia may not put them in the same position as sugar babies. In the case of dancers and some other professions, keep in mind that people may be insisting they are not sex workers (even if they do have sex with clients) for

their own safety. They may be trying to avoid admitting to illegal behavior. If people swear up and down that they don’t do any full service so they aren’t real sex workers, let them. What does sex worker empowerment mean to you? Morselle Cupcake: I've really struggled to answer this question! I personally feel great empowerment as a sex worker, but I am privileged in feeling this way. There are so many types of sex work and so many reasons that people choose to do sex work; I can only speak for myself. For me, Sexy Work feels magical, like a type of witchy sorcery that makes me feel powerful in my sexuality. It's my choice, and I give no fucks or I give all the fucks depending on how I feel about it that day! I haven't always felt great in my body, and sex work has really helped me feel body positive and sex positive. Again, this is not true for everyone, and I realize that for the most part I am extremely lucky in my experience doing sex work. I still struggle with my mental health and my sex work is still evolving (and it probably will continue to for some time). Selfcare is super essential in my staying balanced and continuing to feel empowered rather than burned out. For me, therapy has been helpful in this--but it can be very difficult to find a reliable, traumainformed, sex worker-competent, affordable resource. Another thing that helps me feel empowered is my community and my ability to share resources and spend time with other sex workers. I can't say it enough: I love my people so much!! They are the ones that truly inspire and uplift me while keeping me grounded on this planet. Alex: I am so so happy for Morselle and I want to echo the last thing she said. When we are engaged in giving back to our communities and sharing resources and love with other sex workers, we are empowered. I am so proud of the sex workers in my life who hold hands with me so we can lift each other up in what can otherwise seem like an extremely bleak landscape. Seeing other sex workers create change in their communities fills me with hope and strength.

Wake Up—We Are Dying! A Call to Action From People Who Use Drugs

1) Declare the overdose epidemic a public health emergency and allocate the necessary resources to tackling overdose deaths 2) Introduce/ensure the safe supply of legal, pharmaceutical-grade drugs based on each person’s substance of choice 3) Provide support for drug consumption rooms/spaces On International Overdose Awareness Day, we, as so that people who use drugs can use safely and people who use drugs from around the world, demand securely. These spaces should be located and run in an end to the death and devastation wrought by the ways that are accessible and community-centered overdose epidemic. Awareness is nothing without 4) Ensure that naloxone is widely available and easy to concerted political action. Our very lives, and the lives access. Community-distributed naloxone programs are of those we love, are the human cost of this deadly war most likely to be successful because they are best on drugs. All too often, the drugs themselves are blamed placed to reach people who use drugs. for claiming so many lives. In reality, we should lay the 5) Advocate for the decriminalization of drugs and blame on the architects of the disastrous drug war, the people who use drugs, as well as intersectional and lack of political will to find real solutions, and the allied criminalized populations, such as sex worker and LGBTQI communities; and further examine and rectify societal apathy generated by decades of stigma and the ways the war on drugs has been used to discrimination. The combined cost of all this is proving too brutal to bear. Today, as we do every other day, drug disproportionately criminalize marginalized groups such as people of color, poor people, and/or queer and user unions and networks call for action. trans people 6) Meaningfully include the leadership of people who Worldwide, there were 585,000 drug-related deaths in use drugs in the design, implementation, and 2017, and over 70,000 people lost their lives in the US. In monitoring and evaluation of policies, research and Canada, the rate of opioid-related deaths increased programs. from 3,000 in 2016 to nearly 4,000 in 2017. It is no overstatement to declare that we who use drugs are We will not stand by silently in the face of even one struggling to survive through this epidemic of death. more preventable death. Although preliminary figures showed a very small decline in US deaths in 2018, more Americans still died This call is issued on behalf of drug user unions and of a drug overdose that year than were killed during the networks around the world, including the International entire Vietnam War. And yet governments continue to Network of People who use Drugs, Urban Survivor’s prosecute and punish people who use drugs—creating Union, the Canadian Association for Safe Supply and the Middle East and North African Network of People the conditions that drive these tolls—while responding who use Drugs, Canadian Association of People who use to our misery with lethargy, if at all. Stigma and Drugs, Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, Women discrimination lie at the heart of this inaction. and Harm Reduction International Network and Unharming Ohio This silence in the face of our deaths, and the deaths of

BY JUDY CHANG

those we love, is a manifestation of the rampant hate and prejudice against our communities. We do not forfeit our rights because of the substances we put in our bodies. People who use drugs are people: mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends and valuable and productive members of society. And we fight on. Just like any oppressed and marginalized group in history, we refuse to be dismissed as collateral damage. We, as drug user activists, advocates, and community organizers from around the world, know what is needed to end this overdose epidemic. We demand that governments, media, healthcare professionals, and the general public worldwide:

drug users think february 2020

SINK OR SWIM

the most prolific drug user of all time editorial by knina strichartz

When I first began accessing user message boards in the very late 1990’s, there was one poster who always would blow me away. I started reading about his saga on bluelight.com and he seemed to have a comment for every thread, every discussion, and every topic. He wasn’t just on bluelight, but every new message board which began to pop up with questions and threads on the subject of drug use. I mean, this guy was beyond anything I had ever imagined. He walked the line and seemed to have zero fear and zero discretion with what he was willing to try for the sake of experimentation with drugs. I remember reading a post of his where he talked about using different liquid beverages to dissolve substances for IV injection. He listed ones he had already experimented with, which included, “sprite, coke a cola, orange juice, ice tea, lemon juice, apple juice." I couldn’t understand how it was possible for someone to inject with orange juice, but I was also a naive baby who had yet to learn the proper process of break down. But he did even crazier things than shooting OJ. Mixing a certain number of mg of this thing with that thing, asking if people thought it was safe to take a whole box on Benadryl on ten Klonopin and 2 Oxy 30s... He wrote about plugging and breaking down pills, putting tampons soaked in alcohol up his butt, and ingesting possibly toxic plants for supposed psychedelic effects. I read every post he made.

I didn’t know if he was just a total lunatic or some type of drug god, but I constantly questioned how he was still alive, and where he got the time and money to indulge in all his insane escapades and experiments. He did have his scares though, god or not. The other half of his running post saga contained stories of and panicked questions about an accelerated heart rate, massive sweating, and throbbing head pain with possible bleeding from the ears. I wondered just how long he would be able to stay alive with all the symptoms he had suffered. The advice people responded with never seemed to be very helpful or even sensible like “go to the hospital”. Instead, it was mostly suggestions of home remedies like “eat a spoon of ginger and sit on an ice pack”, which I figured must have worked, since the placebo effect was just the right cure for what seemed like pure hypochondria at times. I was absolutely certain he had more than a few mental health issues. For one thing, there was the way he wrote his posts. He always referred to himself in the third person. I had a high school Spanish teacher who did the same thing, but it’s not really a common practice. He spelled his name with all capital letters whenever he typed it. I assumed the combination of the two things had some strange narcissistic and delusional significance attached to it. I wondered what he looked like and the specifics of his life. For about a year and a half I was fascinated with this daring and brazen lunatic, and reading his posts took up the majority of my time spent online. That was SWIM, the coolest and craziest drug user I never knew.

drug users think february 2020

NATIONAL DRUG USER UNION CONVENING Interviewed by Michael Galipeau

drug users think february 2020

SHOWING BIGG LOVE WE SEE YOU, WEST VIRGINIA

West Virginia was where it happened for me---that first real USU (Urban Survivors Union) experience that makes a real impression, where you see the mission of this organization in action and suddenly you realize you're not alone. There are other people out there who share your passion and vision for a better world for people who use drugs. West Virginia was in crisis, HCV rates were rising to the highest in the nation, entire pocket areas of HIV were being reported, and needle exchanges were being shut down.

A call for help went out from Shannon Hicks, the director of Exchange Union, located outside the capital of Charleston, West irgina. Although I had done a few minor jobs for USU, all of them had been from behind my computer screen at home. I knew fellow members and leaders mostly by voice through our national call, but these names and voices had become the icons of harm reduction in my mind.

“WHEN YOU HAVE A DEATH LIST SO LONG YOU CAN’T EVEN REMEMBER ALL THE NAMES OFF THE TOP OF YOUR HEAD, IT’S TIME TO START FIGHTING.”

Louise Vincent, who has the courage to always speak the truth openly and stand behind what she believes in, was one of those iconic figures for me. Although we had met before on Overdose Awareness Day and often talked on the phone about our parallel struggles and hopes, I was both terrified and excited when she called me and asked if I would come participate in the actions planned for West Virginia.

WE'RE HERE TO SHOW DRUG USERS THEY'RE LOVED

I had never felt as if I fit in with a group my entire life. I was always that person who felt on the outside, somehow different--not good enough to be a part of whatever everyone else was able to join in so easily. Yet, here I was, being invited into the inner circle. As we stood in solidarity on the steps of the capital at twilight candles flickering, one by one members of this amazing group of people began to call out names. We called out the names of people whom we had had loved and cared about, called our friends, and even more than that, our family. I called out for those I was able to remember and those I wasn't, a death list of so many I found myself beginning to cry. I lifted my head to look around at the community of people surrounding me and I felt a part of something important. I felt the message of USU's mission course through my veins, "To show drug users that they are loved"--that's why we're there. We are a group of people who have endured great loss and trauma but we no longer need to feel alone, because we have each other.

2019 INTERNATIONAL DRUG POLICY REFORM CONFERENCE

drug users think february 2020

Written by Michael Galipeau

Saint Lous, MO- The 2019 Drug Policy Alliance International Conference took place in Saint Louis, MO. The conference was held at the Union Station, which is now a Hilton hotel. Beyond the stunning facilities, the conference itself hosted an impressive panel of guests, from global researchers on illicit manufacturing, to drug court panels, and provided space for an array of community conversations, giving advocates and activists many platforms in which to learn and participate in advancing the cultural narrative and policy landscape for the substance use population. Among the leading contentions within this emerging narrative were several important themes---the importance of restorative justice and a human rights framework for drug policy, the need for compassion and sensible regulation, the impact of the Drug War on impoverished communities, the hope for significant change in the realm of drug policy, and the need to address broad policy reform initiatives. Of particular interest was the contrast between the conference setting and its attendees. The grand halls of the Hilton stood in stark white contrast to the many activists gathered here, many of whom were clad in the black garb and metal spikes of gutter punk rebels, drug users, and miscreants. There was also a mixture of legal professionals, politicians, scientists, and nonprofit executives, making for an interesting salt and pepper mixture within the community. Fascinatingly, the streets of Saint Louis itself felt abandoned and neglected. While I was there, I had the opportunity to spend some time speaking with a homeless man named Joshua, who had come there some time before.

He had spent much time on the streets living there, and claimed that it was no place to be homeless. He explained he had had some trouble finding work, and that his relationship with alcohol had made it difficult to find access to services. He explained how he kept away from other drugs, as he had had problems with them before, but that the alcohol had helped him to cope with life on the cold, empty streets. The only other visible movement on the streets was from the occasional peddler, crying his illicit wares into the night, asking groups of passersby if they were interested. These were predominantly men of color, otherwise not to be seen anywhere in downtown. There was an eerie lack of passing traffic, and the only crowd of people in visible poverty appeared when a faith organization came to the local park to distribute clothing and food to the locals. It was later explained to me that Saint Louis was one of the most dangerous cities in America, and that murders happened here regularly. Between the murder rate and the heavy presence of police and their cameras, it was no wonder the visibly poor were not so visible here. I felt the urge to hide myself in these conditions, and used ride-share often, even though our quarters were only a handful of blocks away from the conference center.

drug users think february 2020 In a panel discussion titled ‘Drug Courts: How Do They Relate to Decriminalization and Health-Centered Drug Policy?’, a judge from Sante Fe, NM named Jason Lidyard explained how in his drug court he refuses to lock a person up for using substances. He also touted the incredible success of his program, and even had program participants at the conference attending with him. In another panel called ‘Activating People Who Sell Drugs as Harm Reductionists,’ Steven Pacheco, Policy Coordinator at Punishment to Public Health, shared that these systems were performing exactly as they were designed to--they were designed to create despair and chaotic drug use. Perhaps the most jarring discussion I participated in at the conference was one in which a comparison was made between the criminal justice system and modern day slavery. This point is of course backed by language in the Constitution, an exception clause to the 13th amendment which permits the slavery of individuals who have been convicted of a crime. When paired with the massive expansion of criminalization during the Civil rights era and the racially aligned nature of these criminalization efforts, it raises the question of what the ultimate goal of criminalization actually is.

There was a panel that explained how the war on drugs was a war on women, citing the destruction of families, of children being abducted from young mothers, and how the child welfare system is used to target mothers with substance use disorder, even those participating in legal treatment, to take children away, and to push them out of formal healthcare systems for fear of retaliation. Panelists deepened my understanding of the crisis further by discussing how illicit markets affected the rights and safety of sex workers and how illicit substances were used by abusers in relationships and exploitative third parties to control women doing sex work. Out of fear of the consequences of criminalization, women are often too scared to go to the authorities, even at the cost of their own or their children’s lives. This panel painted a chilling picture of the realistic consequences of the drug war, often far removed from the minds and hearts of political actors charged with making policy decisions regarding the health and welfare of the citizens they are charged to protect. Often times these decisions are fueled by popular discourse, and have adverse consequences for vulnerable populations, particularly women, the LGBTQ community, Native Americans and other people of color.

drug users think february 2020 Groups like the Black Panthers and the Anti-War Movement were systemically disenfranchised by the government as a result of criminalization that was created to target the members of these movements. To this end, the War on Drugs has been very successful in its efforts.

community-led groups called users unions are being formed by people who have been adversely affected by the drug war, and one of the features of the conference was a convening of this national movement to establish rules of governance.

The drug user liberation movement has its North American origins in Vancouver, Canada, where a group of drug users formed a community-led organization in the infamous Southeast side of downtown Vancouver. This is where the first safe consumption space appeared, and many other reform efforts were first piloted as a direct result of the drug using activist community here.

One of the most intriguing and inconspicuous workshops at the conference was a workshop on international drug manufacturing. There is a powerful narrative in American society that the international drug trade is controlled by cartels and kingpins in other nations. The presenting panel hosted speakers from Colombia, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Mexico. What was most interesting to me was their explanation that the producers of these plants were simple farmers, often from the poorest regions of their countries. It became starkly clear to me that not only was the American narrative of substance distribution profoundly misinformed, but in fact, this narrative perpetuated the continued impoverishment of these communities, and their exploitation. The most successful of the farmers openly engaged in financial exchanges with their local government officials, as corruption is widespread throughout the globe, particularly in the poorest regions. This left the most destitute and desperate farmers with few options but to become migrants to avoid the impact of criminalization and discriminatory actions by military and police. Often times these producers become extorted by organized crime, as they lack the protection of police and the government, and often have no alternatives for subsistence farming to survive in challenging climates where little else will grow or meet their needs. Just as often, organized crime is tied to the government itself, and so the police and military become extensions of organized

While at the conference I was lodging with a renowned Canadian journalist by the name of Travis Lupick. As a journalist, he's received several awards, including two 2017 Jack Webster awards for excellence in B.C. journalism and the Canadian Association of Journalists’ prestigious Don McGillivray Award for best overall investigative report in 2016. He is the author of Fighting for Space, a 2017 book covering the history of the downtown Eastside and its residents. His work has received rave reviews from renowned authors and scholars such as Johann Hari and Gabor Mate. His writing can be found here: https://www.fightingforspace.com/

In many ways, the leaders of the Harm Reduction movement see their work as the continuation of the unfinished work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This work is now being championed by people who use drugs, mobilized in the context of a national drug users union, the Urban Survivors Union. This movement has exploded in recent years, mostly due to the increased marginalization and health crises drug users are suffering in America. Around the nation,

drug users think february 2020 From participating in global strategy around drug checking services, to team-based conversations about recovery and harm reduction education, to contributing to an update on harm reduction psychotherapy with Andrew Tatarsky, this conference hosted numerous opportunities to not only learn, but to contribute meaningfully to the development of services, education, training, and policy reform. The opportunities to foster collaboration and team-building in a The Drug Policy Alliance Conference was an diverse environment were exciting and incredible opportunity to participate in unparalleled. Nearly every voice was present global strategy meetings, learn at the table, from judges and police to new information about reform efforts, and treatment professionals and drug users. This get a comprehensive view of what drug policy program represented the most reform looks like and has to offer. There is comprehensive, inclusive environment for much hope and inspiration in this reform found anywhere in the Western environment. The only downside was the world. The opportunities hosted here to almost overwhelming amount of curriculum coordinate local, regional, and national and content available at this conference---a strategy are abundant, and its contributions person can only attend so many events. to American history are prolific.

Just as often, organized crime is tied to the government itself, and so the police and military become extensions of organized crime and often terrorize local subsistence farmers. The video shown of cannabis farmers from Mexico showed a much different picture of what these producers look like than what is usually depicted in America.

Our Flower In The Gun By Michael Galipeau

We live in a world today Where violence rules our day to day Where mothers cry, fathers shake We are dying alone for goodness' sake A cry of war, one shot in the dark Left Robbie dead in Central Park We prayed for hope We gave them dope Instead of love and support So today we gather For our lives matter And lean on each other as the blood still splatters AnotherÂ day, while we wait Another dies, a funeral, a wake Another one lost to the war on drugs When what we needed was the flower Not the gun To love each other in liberty Providing each other opportunity Perhaps someday the killing may end So we'll keep marching until then We are a country at war with ourselves Pray that we stop killing ourselves I remind myself that it didn't have to end this way For us to find love again and live to fight another day 21

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NO CEASE FIRE IN SIGHT BY LOUISE VINCENT

For the last few years we heard “we are not going to arrest our way out of this problem" ad nauseam. It almost seemed for a moment that we were headed toward a kinder, gentler drug war. We would read articles that would describe disturbing statistics related to opioid overdose and climbing disease rates and then almost without fail we would see some version of the statement “we are not going to arrest our way out of this problem.” It sounded like people actually understood that disconnecting people from their lives only made things worse. Sure, we were still talking about pills and the pill epidemic. The bad guys were doctors and Big Pharma, not drug warriors. But we saw a willingness to move away from a criminal justice approach towards a public health framework. Syringe service programs popped up in places they had always been forbidden and money for the opioid epidemic began to flow. However, it did not take long for this thinking to completely revert to good old fashioned drug war rhetoric. This is not a new story in the United States. .We love to blame the people with the least amount of power in this country. Now we are racing to schedule fentanyl, implementing mandatory miminums, passing drug induced homicide laws, as well as fetal assault legislation all across the country. More laws, harsher laws, more murder charges, more PUNISHMENT. These stigmatizing messages have always driven drug war politics. Recently, I have read sensationalist articles that suggest America’s babies are crying for heroin as opposed to their mother's milk.

These are articles in which medical providers are quoted arguing that drug users should be denied heart valves when they have endocarditis. Sprinkled through all this is just enough stigmatizing social media drug porn to make sure no one gets any ideas about people who use drugs being respectable American people with morals and values. A New York Times article just a few months ago reads: "His body dependent on opioids, he writhes, trembles, and cries. He is exhausted but cannot sleep. He vomits, barely eats and has lost weight. He is also a baby. Just 1 month old, he wails in the nursery of the CAMC Women and Children’s Hospital here. A volunteer 'cuddler' holds him while walking around, murmuring sweetly, hour after hour, but he is inconsolable. What his body craves is heroin." All of this takes us right back to where we once were: 80’s crack babies and the push toward mass incarceration.

Our society needs to blame someone or something and guess what? It’s people who use drugs. We are the people most impacted. We are the people who will suffer because of these policies. It will be our families torn apart and our loved ones separated from one another as we face long prison sentences for simply possessing a substance.

There is no foolproof way to protect oneself these days. People I know who are careful and thoughtful about their drug use, gone! What is to become of all of us? Will we all die? I watch as money is continually wasted and programs are developed and built on the backs of drug users, only to throw those same users aside when their use shows itself.

Urban Survivors Union, the national drug user I am terrified for up and coming drug users. union, must reach out to drug users across the How will they survive? What chance do they country and work to amplify the voice of the have? I feel hopeless as we continue coping active user. We are in a drug war, friends, and with fentanyl contamination of our drug supply. there is no cease fire in sight. It seems we are living in a culture of death. Everywhere I turn there is loss and death, people I love dying right in front of my eyes. If a friend is sleeping hard and does not wake when I call their name, I shudder with terror. If someone I care about is late to pick me up, I worry. People are dropping dead just like that.

Louise Vincent Leadership Team

A FEW TIPS AND THINGS TO KNOW REGARDING DRUG-INDUCED HOMICIDE by knina strichartz

As individuals who use drugs it's important that we prepare and protect ourselves against the sudden onslaught of drug-induced homicide laws being passed nation wide. This is a war where our defense strategy is just as important as our attack. Combination overdoses: Drug-induced homicide laws are usually written around the specifics of the death being the result of a single consumed substance supplied by one individual to another. This means that a death which results from a combination of different substances (example: alcohol, benzos, and heroin) cannot be charged as a drug-induced homicide. Â The good Samaritan law: Good SAM laws were life saving when they were finally introduced. They created a safe environment where friends and family could safely call 911 in the event of an accidental overdose, and not have to worry about prosecution over amounts of substances for personal use. It is important to know that when it comes to "death by distribution" laws that although an individual is still protected when it comes to possession they are not protected when it comes to being charged with murder. In fact, anyone present at the scene runs the risk of a murder charge. Don't let your life be used as a tool in the drug war: By signing a "Do Not Prosecute" order you're able to voice your wishes after death that no one be prosecuted or legally held responsible for your death. Although the DNP is not a legally binding document and will not hold up in court it does state your opposition to drug-induced homicide laws, as well as making the statement "my drugs, my choice", that you are responsible for the outcome of self administered illegal substances. Urban Survivors Union offers along with the DNP order a carry card. The card states you are the owner of a DNP order and where it can be retrieved along with your name and photo. If you do not have a DNP order with us currently the DNP form is available on Basecamp to print sign and notarize . You may also request a photo carry card from USU by emailing your photo and address to DONPT@urbansurvivorsunion.org and sending a suggested donation of $5.

Stay Tuned for the Urban Survivors Union Annual Report 2019!

In Loving Memory of Beck Brooks RIP 2019

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN WRITING FOR AND HELPING PUT OUT THE NEXT ISSUE OF DRUG USERS THINK, PLEASE CONTACT: KNINA@URBANSURVIVORSUNION.ORG MIKEYG@URBANSURVIVORSUNION.ORG LOUISE@URBANSURVIVORS.ORG