Media Storm - Harm reduction as a different approach to drugs

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to MediaStorm, a news podcast that starts with the people who are normally asked last. I'm Matilda Mallinson and I'm Helena Wadia. And we're back with some bonus content for our loyal listeners. Last week we looked at the war on drugs. A war, it seems, has failed. Deaths from drugs have reached record levels and the UK, in particular Scotland, is the drug death capital of Europe. But if we've lost the war, what comes next? What are the alternatives? This week we're looking at harm reduction,

Starting point is 00:00:40 a different approach to drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. The gangs, the drug balance. The link between drug abuse and crime. Just say no. She's life. Drugs are menacing our society. They're killing our children.

Starting point is 00:00:57 It is necessary to wage a new A new all-out offense. Share a love to my little friend. We're joined in the studio by Neve Eastwood, executive director of the charity release and Juan Fernandez, who leads development of the global campaign, Support Don't Punish.

Starting point is 00:01:17 You both work in harm reduction. Could you just tell us what that means? I think my favorite definition of harm reduction comes from an activist in the U.S. called Shira Hassan. And Shira says, harm reduction is a philosophy and a set of practical empowerment-based strategies designed to reduce harm from risks associated with drug use, sex, sex work, self-injury, eating disorders, violence, policing, etc. It centers individual and collective models of care that get us close to liberation and a safer world. And there's all the definitions of harm reduction because

Starting point is 00:01:51 it's a concept that's constantly sort of being redefined by communities that are affected by the war on drugs. but I think this definition stresses that there are very concrete steps that we can take to reduce harm associated with drugs and manage the risks associated with drug use and related experiences. I think that goes from the very personal, for example, being a sitter if a friend is trying a drug for the first time, like being there for them in case they need support, testing before you try a new batch of drugs, testing how it will react with your system. I think there's a great campaign by the loop called Crush, Dab and Wait, the idea that if you have a new batch of MDMA, for example, you just take a little bit to see how it reacts with your body because it might not be MDMA at all. We have to remember that this country does not allow drug checking,

Starting point is 00:02:42 apart from trials and pilots that are entirely paid by non-profits and not by the government. And it goes from that to the very sort of structural, so ending criminalization, ensuring access to care, And I think in the middle we have the opioid agonist therapy, the provision of sterile equipment. So there is a range from the very personal to the very macro and structural harm reduction provides all kinds of very concrete steps, how we can take care of each other and ourselves. Is there a year in which you see this utopia happening? Can you give us a timeline?

Starting point is 00:03:21 If you had to pick a year, when is this materializing? I've only been engaged in drug policy reform for 10 years and I've seen so much change. So I do hope within my lifetime to see a complete re-haul of how we approach drugs. And at the same time, I think prohibition and the war on drugs will take longer to dismantle. These are incredibly entrenched systems of punishment and neglect. But there's huge strides. Yeah, no, I agree. And I think if you look again to the US and to Canada,

Starting point is 00:03:53 particularly the US. I mean, this was ground zero for the modern drug wall. And I think the fact we've seen so much progression there around cannabis legalization. And for me, what's really important in the US context and surprising is how quickly they have moved towards making sure that the regulated market for cannabis is centered on principles of social and racial justice. So back in 2012, when Colorado legalized cannabis and Washington state, I mean, these were the first two states, there's no conversation about, you know, how do we make sure that people who have been over-policed, people who have been over-carcerated are compensated for the harms of the drug war. That wasn't part of the conversation, and that's not surprising. I mean, though they were first into the foray. You move forward 10 years. You know, New York has just legalized the cannabis market. And in fact, they had two previous pieces of legislation that would have regulated

Starting point is 00:04:52 cannabis and provided that legal market. But it didn't go far enough for activists around racial and social principles and policies. And so they rejected it and it didn't get through, but it got through last November. And what we're seeing is we're seeing tax that will be raised from the market, being reinvested in communities that have been harmed by policing and prohibition. We're seeing opportunities for people who are part of the illicit market to transfer into the legal market. We're seeing expungement of records, you know, making sure that people who were previously criminalized, no longer bear the burden of a criminal record. And that's happening in the US, where we see these opportunities to redefine markets in a way that makes sure the

Starting point is 00:05:33 purists in society and the most harmed in society by the drug war are being compensated, that we are seeing reparations for the damage done. Not just a peace treaty reparations. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly like that. And it can be done poorly. I mean, so if you look at Canada, for example, they regulated cannabis back in 2018. Theirs was all about creating a market. It wasn't about repairing those harms of prohibition. And so under the Canadian model, it is still illegal to be in possession of cannabis

Starting point is 00:06:03 that is bought from the illicit market. That is not the case in the US. All US states that have regulated cannabis have a level of decriminalisation. So you can be in possession of a certain amount of cannabis without any sanctions, regardless of where the cannabis is sourced from but in Canada it is still a criminal offence and so if we think about who can who has the

Starting point is 00:06:25 means to access that market sounds like a recipe for monopoly yeah and also it's it's it's it's the people who've been thrown under the bus of prohibition are now being thrown under the bus of prohibition 2.0 we're calling it campaign called the Support on Punish campaign that's trying to build a mass movement against the war on drugs. And I think part of it is awakening solidarity in people, making people realize that you almost have a moral responsibility as a privileged drug user to stand in solidarity with those who do not have those privileges and vote accordingly and demand change accordingly. And of course there's allyship. We can encourage people who might not be in any

Starting point is 00:07:19 way related to the drugs trade or be drug users, not be personally affected, but understand that this is harmful for society as a whole, and what is harmful to our neighbours is harmful to me. It's what I was also alluding to earlier about creating this vision of a society that values interdependence. That is partly what the Support on Punish campaign is trying to do, apart from affecting political and policy change. I'm wondering the real-life impact of media, and whether it makes it harder for people to speak help, knowing that they could be labelled a criminal. Does it make it harder for charities like yours to open local treatment centres or implement harm reduction strategies? I mean, honestly, it's making me think of, I went to a Catholic

Starting point is 00:08:03 school and the contraception that we were taught was abstinence. And then we had this nurse who would, like, secretly peddle contraceptive pills desperately trying to prevent teenage pregnancies in our year group. I mean, is that you? Are you the nurse? We're not quite there. I mean, we do have harm reduction facilities in the country. So people can access sterile injecting equipment. They can access naloxone, which is a really important medication that can reverse the effects of an opiate overdose, so a heroin overdose. But the laws do prevent us from actually setting up really important harm reduction interventions.

Starting point is 00:08:43 So, for example, drug consumption rooms. So these are facilities where people can take their own illicitly, drugs and they can use them in those facilities under the supervision of peers or a nurse and it just means if they are likely to have an overdose there's someone there to look after them but the law and the home office specifically are refusing to allow these rooms because they don't want to be seen to condone drug use and I think also if you look at the high rates of drug-related deaths in this country you know the fact that we have the highest on record since records began in the 1990s and that is the 10th year in the row that I'm saying that 10th year and you know you get yeah

Starting point is 00:09:27 you get tired you get tired you do you know and it is it just it gives me goosebumps every time I say it because it is so distressing to think that the vast majority of these deaths are avoidable I mean they're actually avoidable with good public health interventions we could save a lot of lives but you look at the reporting of these deaths in the media and when a young person dies say for example of an MDMA, strong MDMA, whatever. It's tragic, but that makes front page news. We have 1900 people who die of heroin overdoses. They never make the news. These lives just don't seem to be worth anything. And that plays out both in the media, it plays out in policy, it plays out in policing. And that to me is a real feeling of society and a failure of politicians and a

Starting point is 00:10:15 failure of media. Thank you so much for listening. We'll be back next week with an episode on Sex Work. Follow MediaStorm wherever you get your podcasts so that you can get access to new episodes as soon as they drop. If you like what you hear, share this episode with someone and leave us a five-star rating and a review on Apple Podcasts. It really helps more people discover the podcast and our aim is to have as many people

Starting point is 00:10:39 as possible hear these voices. You can also follow us on social media at Matilda Mal at Helen wardier and follow the show via at MediaStorm pod also get in touch and let us know what you'd like us to cover or who you'd like us to speak to media storm a new podcast from the house of the guilty feminist is part of the acos creator network it is produced by tom selinsky and deborah francis white the music is by samfire

Media Storm - Harm reduction as a different approach to drugs

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