October 1, 2021

National Harm Reduction Coalition creates spaces for dialogue and action that help heal the harms caused by racialized drug policies.

+ ARTICLE: BREAKING — Atlantic City’s syringe exchange is suing the city over efforts to close it. The lawsuit was filed by South Jersey AIDS Alliance in New Jersey Superior Court Wednesday morning and says that shuttering the syringe exchange at Oasis would “precipitate a public health crisis after a year in which overdoses skyrocketed around the country.” Read more about the story in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Make a donation to support the work of SJAA online here.

+ LAS AMÉRICAS:  ¿Cuál es la relación entre la descolonización y la reducción de daños? What is the relationship between decolonization and harm reduction in Puerto Rico? ⁣ As part of our Las Américas series for National Hispanic Heritage Month, tune in for this video conversation about decolonization and harm reduction in Puerto Rico with Jennifer Montalvo García, Carla V. Correa Cepeda, Alexandra Barcenas Salgado, and Tanagra M. Melgarejo!⁣ This video is entirely in Spanish.

+ ARTICLE:  Read Claire Zagorski’s call to healthcare workers to challenge implicit and explicit biases against people who use drugs in the Filter Magazine article: “Health Care Workers Need to Be Watching the Splintering Drug Supply”

+ ARTICLE:  People who use drugs and harm reductionists in West Virginia are fighting for change in a new statewide coalition. The coalition had its first meeting on September 25 and has a three-point plan for the next 12 months, including a focus on shaping and refining core values and goals, conducting an organizing drive, and practicing collaboration across the state. Read more in Appalachian Oracle. 

+ NEWS:  Doctors, drug users, parents who have lost children to overdose and street outreach workers on Monday urged lawmakers to launch a pilot of two or more supervised drug consumption sites in Massachusetts. Read more in this article: “Urgent Calls for Supervised Drug Consumption At State House Hearing”

+ NEWS:  “That’s all anybody in the cell was asking for: help. They wonder why people are so violent when you’re yelling from a cage, ‘help, help, help,’ and you’re looking at us and ignoring us like we’re not there.” — Mateo, 20, released from Rikers Sept. 19. Read more stories about the conditions at Rikers from recently released folks in New York Magazine. 

+ GALA: Hear from Monique Tula about NHRC’s upcoming inaugural fundraising gala on November 20, 2021. The deadline to nominate your favorite harm reduction program for one of five Community Choice Awards has been extended to October 8, 2021. Nominate a program and get your tickets today!

+ EVENT: Save the date for the Alliance for Collaborative Drug Checking’s Virtual Learning Summit from November 3-5, 2021. Interested in joining the coalition? Sign up here.

+ PODCAST: Be sure to check out season 1 of the NASTAD podcast — Southern Steep: Brewing Stronger Community — centering the voices of community leaders in the South.

+ ZINE: In case you missed it! Download the free, printable zine from The DOPE Project and artist Gaia Wxyz on Grieving Overdose. 

+ WORKSHOP: How do we respond to mental health crises without relying on harmful prison systems? Join Interrupting Criminalization for a two-day workshop series on their new guide, Defund the Police - Invest in Community Care: A Guide to Alternative Mental Health Crisis Responses. Workshop dates are October 12, 3-6 PM ET and November 18, 3-6 PM ET. Register at bit.ly/MHCrisisResponse.

If you support emergent and exciting work at National Harm Reduction Coalition, please join our community of monthly donors, the Harm Reduction Champions!

+ SIGN ON LETTER: We’re joining DPA and others calling on Congress to let the classwide scheduling policy expire and instead pass health-centered public health measures. The measure to extend the temporary classification of fentanyl-related substances as Schedule 1 drugs  disproportionately impacts people of color through harsher criminal penalties and an expansion of mass incarceration, and is widely acknowledged by public health experts as ineffective in tackling the opioid overdose epidemic.  Learn more here.

+ BILL TRACKER: The EQUAL Act, erasing sentencing disparities between crack and powder cocaine, passed the House! This bill would make the sentencing changes retroactive, meaning folks currently serving prison sentences will be eligible to have their sentences reduced. Read more here.

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