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Friend,
Over the last few months, we’ve been working behind the scenes with the producers of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver for a segment that just aired tackling overdose and harm reduction.
Watch the entire video here or check out our short clip of highlights here.
He discusses how criminalization, stigma, and misinformation are counterproductive in addressing overdose deaths and what solutions we must pursue to save lives such as drug checking, naloxone, overdose prevention centers, and more.
Yet, while this segment has gone viral and many people are supporting its message, we still have so much work ahead of us to convince lawmakers to do the right thing.
The Biden administration just released a Congressional budget proposal for next year that talks up harm reduction without backing it up with the funding to adequately address the crisis. Quite frankly, it was all talk yet little money for harm reduction.
It’s deeply disappointing that they aren’t dedicating the resources we desperately need, especially with overdose deaths worse than ever before. Although we’ve forced federal lawmakers to finally talk about the benefits of harm reduction, our communities deserve real action, funding, and resources to save lives.
Slowly but surely, we’re shifting the national conversation and accurate reporting like we saw on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is another example of how far we’ve come. But our lawmakers need to catch up and fully fund harm reduction services to curb the overdose crisis.
Together, we can put pressure on the Biden administration and our leaders to prioritize harm reduction by keeping up our demands for reform and continuing to educate people with the facts.
You can help us raise awareness by sharing the John Oliver clip on Twitter and Facebook.
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Sincerely,
Grant Smith
Deputy Director, National Affairs
Drug Policy Alliance |
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