Drug addicts/People who use drugs are probably the last marginalized social category that it’s totally OK to treat like shit. There’s a movement to promote drug users’ humanity and advocate for our civil rights (things like safe injection sites, safe supply, ending the War on Drugs), which is still in its very early infancy; if you’re interested, a good place to start is looking up the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), and its associated org, the Drug Users’ Liberation Front (DULF). “Harm reduction” is a keyword that’s heavily associated with our movement.
It’s a rare sight, a drug addict (in “active addiction”) speaking for themselves and for their community (yes, community). I’m not ashamed of my drug use. I have never scammed anyone for drugs. I have never stolen from anyone. And in contrast to how jaded this world leaves most of us who do dope in the shadows, I have met the closest friends and the most awesome people I’ve met in my entire life since I started doing drugs. I’m going to rehab soon (I guess), but I don’t intend to leave this world behind all the way. These are my friends. These are my people. o7
Anyways…
Yeah ask me anything. Some questions I may respectfully pass on because of reasons.
I’m calling the rehab place tomorrow, technically today, btw.
Hi, thank you for posting this. Because a lot of leftist stuff focuses on marginalised people, by proxy I've noticed how horrifically people treat anyone with an addiction. Like a safe injection site was set up in my town recently and I was disheartened to hear people bitching about "crime rates" and whatever.
I'm glad you posted this, and I'm happy to hear that you've met cool people and found community, even if it's through drug addiction. I admire your commitment to your people o7
I would like to ask: since there's been a lot of noise made recently about Naloxone, has it greatly improved things from where you stand? How common is it for drug addicts to carry naloxone?
Edit: just found out that Naloxone has been approved in the US since 1971 or so? Dang, I've only heard about it the last like five or ten years.
It’s literally saved my life; I took one hit off some strong fetty powder and immediately died (junkie subculture has this kinda poetic thing of using “died” as a term for overdosing; my username comes from a friend, who was talking about all the times they’ve died). It’s not as available as it should but it’s fairly ubiquitous. I just remembered that I by proxy saved someone’s life some months ago, because of what I taught a friend about reversing an overdose.
Also another cool fact about naloxone: it’s derived from oxycodone.
Nasal naloxone (narcan) came out in 2015 and made it way easier to use. It's expensive though - I keep one in my purse but only because my work supplies them in case I see someone OD in the streets (I work in houseless services). Before that you'd have to do an intramuscular injection with a big scary needle (have some of those too, fortunately never had to use them).
Most of the clients I've spoken to about it didn't know that the injection form exists, but I've heard lots of horror stories of "the before times" where people would OD and their friends would have no idea what to do but wait it out.