Press Release: New Online Memorial Honors More Than One Million Lives Lost to Overdose 
 
 #SupportHarmReduction #OverdoseMemorial 
 
Largest-Ever Harm Reduction Ad Campaign to Run in Conjunction with 
Memorial to Generate Support for Solutions to Growing Crisis, 
Including Full-Page New York Times Ad and TV Spots 
 
(New York, NY, February 14, 2022) - A new, interactive, online memorial was launched today by the public health organization
<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.vitalstrategies.org/"> Vital Strategies </a> to honor those who have lost their lives to a drug overdose – more than one million in the past
two decades in the U.S. – far surpassing car crashes and firearm fatalities combined. Inspired by the AIDS quilt, the digital mosaic allows anyone to commemorate a loved one lost to overdose, and calls for urgent action in their name.
 
 
The memorial’s launch is accompanied by the largest-ever national advertising campaign promoting harm reduction to raise awareness about common-sense ways to save lives, such as distributing the opioid overdose reversal drug, naloxone, to
people who use drugs and their loved ones. Following the national launch, Vital Strategies will share the campaign in some of the states hardest-hit by the overdose crisis, including using technology that will allow the memorial to be
projected onto buildings. 
 
“The AIDS quilt turned grief into demand for change, forcing the country to confront the mounting HIV/AIDS epidemic with the urgency it required. With overdose deaths topping 100,000 a year, we are beyond the moment of reckoning with our
failure to address drug use as a health issue,” said Dr. Daliah Heller, Vice President of Drug Use Initiatives at Vital Strategies. “We hope the overdose memorial offers an opportunity for those touched by this tragedy to share their
stories and join in the call to support the public health solution to the overdose crisis: harm reduction.” 
 
The campaign is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of their initiative to tackle the overdose epidemic in the United States. 
 
“At Bloomberg Philanthropies, we believe in promoting evidence-based interventions to ensure longer, better lives for the greatest number of people – harm reduction does just that,” said Dr. Kelly Henning, who leads the public health
program at Bloomberg Philanthropies. “The rising number of overdose deaths is devastating communities around the U.S. so it’s urgent that public health solutions such as harm reduction interventions are widely supported and implemented. Too
often underfunded, such community-led, evidence-driven interventions like naloxone distribution and syringe service programs are critical and must receive increased support to help save lives.” 
 
Every 5-and-a-half minutes someone dies from a drug overdose in the U.S. More than 100,000 people died in the past year alone - the highest number on record. Many of these tragedies could have been prevented if harm reduction measures were
in place and at scale. Although the Biden Administration began funding harm reduction
<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/27/health/overdose-harm-reduction-covid.html"> funding harm reduction </a> last year, most federal- and state-directed
overdose prevention efforts do not focus on these proven, life-saving measures. 
 
The goal of this public awareness initiative is to build support for harm reduction measures such as: fentanyl test strips and other drug checking tools so that people can test for harmful additives in drugs; sterile syringes and other
safer drug use supplies to stop the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C; naloxone in community hands to reverse fatal overdoses; methadone and buprenorphine access for those struggling with opioid dependence; and overdose prevention centers, such
as those <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/16/inside-first-supervised-overdose/"> recently opened in New York </a>. 
 
“We need a wholesale shift away from the punitive, carceral approach to drug use, and toward public health strategies rooted in compassion and dignity ,” said Heller. “We need state and federal governments to fund community-led harm
reduction services at the scale of the overdose crisis, and to remove legal barriers to harm reduction measures, such as the distribution of supplies for safer drug use.” 
 
 Anyone impacted by this crisis can upload a photo or words about a loved one directly through SupportHarmReduction.org, or through Instagram by posting a photo that uses the hashtag #OverdoseMemorial. 
 
The $500,000 advertising campaign promoting harm reduction will launch with a full page ad in the New York Times featuring 200 real people working in harm reduction, on the front lines of the overdose crisis. Three
<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://app.frame.io/presentations/83dd0c52-11d5-4a99-978d-407e1c4deadb"> video ads </a> featuring overdose prevention advocates whose own lives were
saved by harm reduction will air 6,000 times in and around Washington, D.C. on a range of channels including: CNN, BET, ESPN, YouTube, Hulu and various podcasts, totaling 37 million impressions. 
 
 Quotes from the TV Ads Featuring Real Harm Reduction Outreach Workers on the Frontlines: 
 
“I believe in harm reduction because it saves lives,” said Nicole Sage, an outreach worker at Prevention Point Philadelphia. “A lot of my friends would be alive today if they had access to naloxone, if they had access to fentanyl test
strips. Harm reduction saved my life.” 
 
“People who use drugs are somebody’s father, mother, brother or sister. Somebody out there loves them,” says Terrell Jones, Outreach and Advocacy Program Manager at New York Harm Reduction Educators. 
 
“I contracted Hepatitis C from shared needles,” said Acxel Barboza from the Washington Heights CORNER Project in another ad. “When I got introduced to harm reduction, little by little I started making changes in my life. It took me out of
the misery I was living in.” 
 
 Interviews are available with experts on this issue and those featured in the ad campaign. 
 
 
 
 About Vital Strategies 
 
Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. In November 2021, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a five-year, $120 million investment to help combat the
overdose crisis in the hard-hit states of Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and Wisconsin. The initiative builds on work of the past three years in Michigan and Pennsylvania, launched in 2018 with $50 million and expands the
work to promote improved federal policies. The partnership between Vital Strategies, Pew Charitable Trusts, Johns Hopkins University, CDC Foundation, and Global Health Advocacy Incubator is helping to strengthen and scale up evidence-based,
data-driven policies and interventions to reduce overdose risks and save lives.

Public Health Group Launches ‘Harm Reduction Saves Lives’ Campaign To Raise Awareness About Overdose Crisis 
 
The organization is leading a week of action to boost support for harm reduction as a viable public health strategy. 
Written By NewsOne Staff 
<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://newsone.com/4290242/public-health-group-launches-harm-reduction-saves-lives-campaign-overdose-crisis/">
 https://newsone.com/4290242/public-health-group-launches-harm-reduction-saves-lives-campaign-overdose-crisis/
</a>
 
 
 
A new ad campaign from Vital Strategies promotes the benefits of harm reduction to address the growing overdose crisis. The organization is leading a week of action to boost support for harm reduction as a viable public health strategy.
 
 
Launching a full-page ad in the New York Times, the Vital Strategies campaign highlighted 200 people who do harm reduction work. The ad notes that overdose deaths are preventable and encourages people to join the fight to end overdose.
 
 
According to a statement announcing the project, the group is also releasing three video ads by overdose prevention advocates who benefited from harm reduction strategies. 
 
“People who use drugs are somebody’s father, mother, brother or sister. Somebody out there loves them,” says Terrell Jones, Outreach and Advocacy Program Manager at New York Harm Reduction Educators. 
 
The organization is also hosting an online memorial to honor the people who died due to an overdose. People can share a photo or post about a loved one directly on SupportHarmReduction.org
<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/prod__index"> SupportHarmReduction.org </a> or post a photo on Instagram using the hashtag #OverdoseMemorial. 
 
It’s estimated that a person dies from a drug overdose every five and a half minutes in the U.S. Over one million people have died from a drug overdose in the last 20 years. 
 
As previously reported by NewsOne, the overdose rate
<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://newsone.com/4287613/biden-administration-harm-reduction-grant-crack-pipes-fact-check/"> for Black men </a> tripled between 2015 and 2020. After a
conservative-led disinformation campaign created chaos and confusion around a new grant by the Biden administration, some harm reduction practitioners have been trying to clarify the need for more, not less, investment in specific
interventions. 
 
The same day as the Viral Strategies ad campaign launched,
<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://aidsunited.org/syringe-access-fund-awards-330000-to-16-harm-reduction-organizations-across-the-u-s/"> AIDS United announced grant recipients </a>
through the Syringe Access Fund to support direct services in Black, indigenous and other communities of color or providers in areas of high need. Grantees include NEXT Harm Reduction in New York and The SOAR Initiative in Ohio. 
 
“We need a wholesale shift away from the punitive, carceral approach to drug use and toward public health strategies rooted in compassion and dignity,” said Dr. Daliah Heller, Vice President of Drug Use Initiatives at Vital Strategies. “We
need state and federal governments to fund community-led harm reduction services at the scale of the overdose crisis, and to remove legal barriers to harm reduction measures, such as the distribution of supplies for safer drug use.”

“Largest-Ever” Harm Reduction Ad Campaign Demands Services, Honors the Dead 
BY ALEXANDER LEKHTMAN 
 
FEBRUARY 17, 2022
 

<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="HTTPS://FILTERMAG.ORG/HARM-REDUCTION-AD-CAMPAIGN/">HTTPS://FILTERMAG.ORG/HARM-REDUCTION-AD-CAMPAIGN/</a>

 You can now participate in an online memorial to honor over 1 million lives lost to overdose in the United States since 1999. Anyone can add a name, picture and obituary. Launched on February 14, it’s inspired in part by the AIDS Quilt—a massive project started in 1985 to commemorate the victims of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
 
Vital Strategies, the nonprofit behind the memorial, has paired it with a national advertising campaign, “Harm Reduction Saves Lives.” This includes a full-page ad in the New York Times, and three video ads that will air in the Washington, DC area on major TV networks like CNN, BET and ESPN and online outlets like YouTube and Hulu. According to Vital Strategies, it is the largest-ever harm reduction ad campaign. It is expected to reach 37 million people—hopefully including lawmakers.
 
“It took me out of all the misery I was living in … Harm reduction saved my life.”
“I contracted hep C from sharing needles,” says Acxel, a harm reduction outreach worker, in one of the video ads. “When I got introduced to harm reduction, little by little I started making changes in my life. It took me out of all the misery I was living in … Harm reduction saved my life.”
 
The campaign’s goals are to secure more harm reduction services throughout the country, together with more funding and more support for them. It’s raising awareness of five strategies that are proven to save the lives of people who use drugs—naloxone, syringe service programs, medications for opioid use disorder, drug checking and overdose prevention centers (also known as safe consumption sites).
 
“The memorial is a way for people to share the loving, tender, meaningful, powerful loss of life we’re experiencing with the overdose crisis,” Daliah Heller, vice president of drug use initiatives at Vital Strategies, told Filter. The campaign website includes a directory for people to find harm reduction services and organizations in their area.
 
Lack of funding for harm reduction is a key barrier. For far too long, federal, state and local governments have neglected harm reduction services—and some have directly antagonized them.
 
In 2021, President Biden’s administration authorized federal funding for harm reduction services for the first time. But the total sum for programs nationwide was only $30 million, and none of it has actually been released yet. And this month, caving to a right-wing public backlash, the federal government clarified that it would not allow funding to supply pipes in safe smoking kits.
 
Nonetheless, money from Biden’s coronavirus bill, plus financial damages from the historic legal settlements with opioid pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, will be coming directly to states and providers throughout this year, Heller explained. She hopes that one outcome of the ad campaign will be to keep the focus of this funding squarely on harm reduction.
 
“How are supplies that are useful for people to protect their own health, and the health of their friends who they may be using drugs with, how are those supplies criminalized?”
But even more money would be of limited use if governments throughout the country continue to block or place heavy restrictions on harm reduction services.
 
The ad campaign has no explicit “calls to action” for viewers, like phoning or emailing lawmakers. It is simply focused on raising awareness of the issues, letting people know the options, and building the consensus that the current approach is failing.
 
“The way we think about harm reduction,” Heller said, “is it’s about decriminalizing people who use drugs. So what are some of the ways they are criminalized? How are supplies that are useful for people to protect their own health, and the health of their friends who they may be using drugs with, how are those supplies criminalized?”

Press Release: As Overdose Crisis Grows in Pennsylvania , New Online Memorial Honors More Than One Million Lives Lost to Overdose
 
Nearly 5,200 People from Pennsylvania Lost their Lives to Overdose in 2020; Advocates Urge for Syringe Service Program Authorization, Promote Harm Reduction Solutions #SupportHarmReduction #OverdoseMemorial Largest-Ever Harm Reduction Ad Campaign to Run in Conjunction with Memorial to Generate Support for Solutions to Growing Crisis, Including Full-Page New York Times Ad and TV Spots A new, interactive, online memorial was launched today by the public health organization <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.vitalstrategies.org/"> Vital Strategies </a> to honor those who have lost their lives to a drug overdose – more than one million in the past two decades in the U.S. – far surpassing car crashes and firearm fatalities combined. Inspired by the AIDS quilt, the digital mosaic allows anyone to commemorate a loved one lost to overdose, and calls for urgent action in their name. 
In Pennsylvania alone, data show nearly 5200 people died from an overdose in 2020, and preliminary numbers from 2021 suggest continued high numbers of lives lost. The Commonwealth has the fifth highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the country and the third highest rate of new HIV infections. Many of these harms could be prevented by harm reduction services, such as access to sterile syringes and other safer drug use supplies, naloxone to reverse opioid overdose, and fentanyl test strips to check drugs. Across the country, these services are increasingly critical to protecting the health of people who use drugs, but in Pennsylvania syringe service programs remain illegal, with the exception of programs operating under municipal ordinances in Allegheny County and Philadelphia. 
 
“We must remove barriers to harm reduction to ensure every person has access to the services that help them stay safer and healthier. The Overdose Memorial that we launched this month is a tragic testament to the fact that what we’re doing now is not working,” said Tracy Pugh, Senior Technical Advisor at Vital Strategies. “We hope this will serve as a wake-up call to treat drug users with compassion and public health approaches, rather than with the punitive measures that have failed to save lives.” 
 
“Pennsylvania families are being torn apart by the overdose crisis, which is impacting Black communities at disproportionate rates,” said Carla Sofronski, co-founder of the Pennsylvania Harm Reduction Network. “Yet Pennsylvania is among a minority of states that do not allow syringe services programs. Thirty years of research shows that these programs save lives, prevent the spread of disease, and act as a bridge to drug treatment and other social services.” 
 
The memorial’s launch is accompanied by the largest-ever national advertising campaign promoting harm reduction to raise awareness about common-sense ways to save lives.
 
“The AIDS quilt turned grief into demand for change, forcing the country to confront the mounting HIV/AIDS epidemic with the urgency it required. With overdose deaths topping 100,000 a year, we are beyond the moment of reckoning with our failure to address drug use as a health issue,” said Dr. Daliah Heller, Vice President of Drug Use Initiatives at Vital Strategies. “We hope the overdose memorial offers an opportunity for those touched by this tragedy to share their stories and join in the call to support the public health solution to the overdose crisis: harm reduction.” 
 
The campaign is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of their initiative to tackle the overdose epidemic in the United States.
 
Every 5-and-a-half minutes someone dies from a drug overdose in the U.S. Many of these tragedies could have been prevented if harm reduction measures were in place and at scale. Although the Biden Administration began funding harm reduction last year, most federal- and state-directed overdose prevention efforts do not prioritize these proven, life-saving measures. 
 
The goal of this public awareness campaign is to build support for harm reduction measures such as: fentanyl test strips and other drug checking tools, so that people can test for harmful additives in drugs; sterile syringes and other safer drug use supplies to stop the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C; naloxone in community hands to reverse fatal overdoses; methadone and buprenorphine access for those struggling with opioid dependence; and overdose prevention centers, such as those recently opened in New York. 
Anyone impacted by this crisis can upload a photo or words about a loved one directly through SupportHarmReduction.org, or through Instagram by posting a photo that uses the hashtag #OverdoseMemorial. 
 
The $500,000 advertising campaign promoting harm reduction will launch with a full page ad in the New York Times featuring 200 real people working in harm reduction, on the front lines of the overdose crisis. Three video ads featuring harm reduction advocates whose own lives were saved by harm reduction will air 6,000 times in and around Washington, D.C. on a range of channels including: CNN, BET, ESPN, YouTube, Hulu and various podcasts, totaling 37 million impressions. 
 
Quotes from the TV Ads Featuring Real Harm Reduction Outreach Workers on the Frontlines:
 
“I believe in harm reduction because it saves lives,” said Nicole Sage, an outreach worker at Prevention Point Philadelphia. “A lot of my friends would be alive today if they had access to naloxone, if they had access to fentanyl test strips. Harm reduction saved my life.” 
 
“People who use drugs are somebody’s father, mother, brother or sister. Somebody out there loves them,” says Terrell Jones, Outreach and Advocacy Program Manager at New York Harm Reduction Educators. 
 
“I contracted Hepatitis C from shared needles,” said Acxel Barboza from the Washington Heights CORNER Project in another ad. “When I got introduced to harm reduction, little by little I started making changes in my life. It took me out of the misery I was living in.” 
 
Interviews are available with experts on this issue and those featured in the ad campaign. 
 
# # # 
About Vital Strategies 
 
Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. In November 2021, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a five-year, $120 million investment to help combat the overdose crisis in the hard-hit states of Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and Wisconsin. The initiative builds on work of the past three years in Michigan and Pennsylvania, launched in 2018 with $50 million and expands the work to promote improved federal policies. The partnership between Vital Strategies, Pew Charitable Trusts, Johns Hopkins University, CDC Foundation, and Global Health Advocacy Incubator is helping to strengthen and scale up evidence-based, data-driven policies and interventions to reduce overdose risks and save lives.
 
Link to <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/campaign/page/"> ads. </a>

Press Release: As Overdose Crisis Grows in Michigan, New Online Memorial Honors More Than One Million Lives Lost to Overdose
 
Over 2,700 People from Michigan Lost Last Year to Overdose; Fueled by National Ad Campaign, Advocates Urge Support for Harm Reduction #SupportHarmReduction #OverdoseMemorial Largest-Ever Harm Reduction Ad Campaign to Run in Conjunction with Memorial to Generate Support for Solutions to Growing Crisis, Including Full-Page New York Times Ad and TV Spots A new, interactive, online memorial was launched today by the public health organization <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.vitalstrategies.org/"> Vital Strategies </a> to honor those who have lost their lives to a drug overdose – more than one million in the past two decades in the U.S. – far surpassing car crashes and firearm fatalities combined. Inspired by the AIDS quilt, the digital mosaic allows anyone to commemorate a loved one lost to overdose, and calls for urgent action in their name. 
In Michigan alone, 2738 people died from an overdose in 2020, with Black men disproportionately impacted. Harm reduction programs have steadily expanded across the state to meet the widespread need for overdose prevention, but advocates warn that support for harm reduction is falling far short of the need of the growing overdose crisis. 
 
“Harm reduction is not only helping to prevent infectious disease and overdose, but also providing food, gloves, hats and basic human connection to those who need it most,” said Andre Johnson, Executive Director of the Detroit Recovery Project. “Especially as services have been paused or canceled during the pandemic, it’s even more critical to provide these services.” 
 
Every 5-and-a-half minutes someone dies from a drug overdose in the U.S. More than 100,000 people died in the past year alone - the highest number on record. Many of these tragedies could have been prevented if harm reduction measures were in place and at scale. Although the Biden Administration began funding harm reduction last year, most federal- and state-directed overdose prevention efforts do not prioritize these proven, life-saving measures. 
 
“Harm reduction programs have existed in Michigan since the late 90s. We’ve been quietly doing the work while the rest of society struggles to catch up,” said Steve Alsum, Executive Director of the Grand Rapids Red Project, a harm reduction community organization. “We know the results: less HIV, less Hepatitis C, less overdose, and people getting into treatment when they’re ready for it and want it.” 
 
The memorial’s launch is accompanied by the largest-ever national advertising campaign promoting harm reduction to raise awareness about common-sense ways to save lives.
 
“The AIDS quilt turned grief into demand for change, forcing the country to confront the mounting HIV/AIDS epidemic with the urgency it required. With overdose deaths topping 100,000 a year, we are beyond the moment of reckoning with our failure to address drug use as a health issue,” said Dr. Daliah Heller, Vice President of Drug Use Initiatives at Vital Strategies. “We hope the overdose memorial offers an opportunity for those touched by this tragedy to share their stories and join in the call to support the public health solution to the overdose crisis: harm reduction.” 
 
The campaign is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of their initiative to tackle the overdose epidemic in the United States.
 
Every 5-and-a-half minutes someone dies from a drug overdose in the U.S. Many of these tragedies could have been prevented if harm reduction measures were in place and at scale. Although the Biden Administration began funding harm reduction last year, most federal- and state-directed overdose prevention efforts do not prioritize these proven, life-saving measures. 
 
The goal of this public awareness campaign is to build support for harm reduction measures such as: fentanyl test strips and other drug checking tools, so that people can test for harmful additives in drugs; sterile syringes and other safer drug use supplies to stop the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C; naloxone in community hands to reverse fatal overdoses; methadone and buprenorphine access for those struggling with opioid dependence; and overdose prevention centers, such as those recently opened in New York. 
Anyone impacted by this crisis can upload a photo or words about a loved one directly through SupportHarmReduction.org, or through Instagram by posting a photo that uses the hashtag #OverdoseMemorial. 
 
The $500,000 advertising campaign promoting harm reduction will launch with a full page ad in the New York Times featuring 200 real people working in harm reduction, on the front lines of the overdose crisis. Three video ads featuring harm reduction advocates whose own lives were saved by harm reduction will air 6,000 times in and around Washington, D.C. on a range of channels including: CNN, BET, ESPN, YouTube, Hulu and various podcasts, totaling 37 million impressions. 
 
Quotes from the TV Ads Featuring Real Harm Reduction Outreach Workers on the Frontlines:
 
“I believe in harm reduction because it saves lives,” said Nicole Sage, an outreach worker at Prevention Point Philadelphia. “A lot of my friends would be alive today if they had access to naloxone, if they had access to fentanyl test strips. Harm reduction saved my life.” 
 
“People who use drugs are somebody’s father, mother, brother or sister. Somebody out there loves them,” says Terrell Jones, Outreach and Advocacy Program Manager at New York Harm Reduction Educators. 
 
“I contracted Hepatitis C from shared needles,” said Acxel Barboza from the Washington Heights CORNER Project in another ad. “When I got introduced to harm reduction, little by little I started making changes in my life. It took me out of the misery I was living in.” 
 
Interviews are available with experts on this issue and those featured in the ad campaign. 
 
# # # 
About Vital Strategies 
 
Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. In November 2021, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a five-year, $120 million investment to help combat the overdose crisis in the hard-hit states of Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and Wisconsin. The initiative builds on work of the past three years in Michigan and Pennsylvania, launched in 2018 with $50 million and expands the work to promote improved federal policies. The partnership between Vital Strategies, Pew Charitable Trusts, Johns Hopkins University, CDC Foundation, and Global Health Advocacy Incubator is helping to strengthen and scale up evidence-based, data-driven policies and interventions to reduce overdose risks and save lives.
 
Link to <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/campaign/page/"> ads. </a>

We can’t end the overdose crisis without support for harm reduction 
By DALIAH HELLER
 
MAR 31, 2022 
 

<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-overdose-harm-reduction-20220331-gcnasnrblffzpdy7jv5vdvrr4m-story.html">We can’t end the overdose crisis without support for harm reduction - New York Daily News (nydailynews.com)</a>

 A recent rash of overdoses has made headline news again. Among the latest is the story of a <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/11/us/west-point-cadets-fentanyl-overdose.html">tragic spring break involving West Point cadets</a> who overdosed on fentanyl that they didn’t know was in their cocaine.
 
I first heard this story in idle chat with a friend of a friend of a friend, lingering at a bar after a late-night show. She shared the story after learning that I work in public health and drug policy, and we proceeded to argue politely about what could be done to prevent young adults overdosing. She suggested the decision to use drugs was a problem of impulse control in young people, and that one or two risk-taking kids must have influenced the others to use cocaine with them. I explained that developmentally, it’s quite normal for young people to take risks, to test boundaries and their independence.
 
Young people do deserve to have information about staying safe, however. We should be telling these young people — telling everyone in the country, loud and clear — that the drug supply right now is contaminated, very dangerous and unpredictably harmful. We should be teaching harm reduction and making it available to everyone. Carry naloxone and know how to use it to reverse an overdose. Test a little bit of the drug before you use. If you’re using for fun and not a physical need, think twice about it. If you decide to use, make a safety plan with someone who won’t be using. Practice harm reduction.
 
Harm reduction is most famously understood as strategies that can make drug use safer. It means distributing supplies and offering monitored settings to help people protect themselves and one another from injury, disease and death. Supplies like fentanyl test strips to check what’s in your drugs, naloxone to counteract an opioid overdose, and sterile materials for drug use, to reduce sharing and protect from infections like hepatitis C and HIV. Settings such as an overdose prevention center where people can go to use their drugs safely, or a hotline to stay in touch with people who are using alone, to summon an emergency response if they fall out.
 
This idea of harm reduction acknowledges there is risk involved with psychoactive drug use, whether due to the potency of the drug itself or in the way it’s used. Harm reduction tries to mitigate these harms by introducing very practical strategies focused on the drug use itself.
 
The imperative for harm reduction is undeniable. More than 100,000 people were lost to overdose in the United States in the past year. Fentanyl analogs have spread like wildfire through the illicit drug market. They’re in counterfeit pills in New Mexico, in contaminated cocaine from Philadelphia to Florida, and in what used to be the heroin supply, now largely replaced by fentanyl in much of the country. To reduce the potential harms of this unregulated drug supply, we need a widespread public health response.
 
The vitally important thing about harm reduction is it accepts that people use drugs, rather than debating whether they should. It rejects a punitive response and focuses instead on offering very practical strategies for staying alive and protecting your health when you use drugs. As the current overdose crisis is showing us, many people who use drugs are simply indulging in a moment of pleasure; this is not uncommon. Others might be seeking temporary relief from discomfort, depression, or anxiety. Some may be struggling with problem drug use but are not prepared to stop using right now. Every single one of these people has one absolute in common: they all deserve to live.
 
To end overdose, we must place harm reduction at the center of the response in the United States. Last month, the organization where I work launched a <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org">media campaign</a>to spread this message. We must fund harm reduction services and strategies to match the scale of the overdose crisis. We must make harm reduction services and strategies available and accessible in every community. And we must remove the policies and practices that impede harm reduction in any community.
 
I have lost many people I loved to overdose over my years. With someone dying every five-and-a-half minutes in this country, the tragedy is that most everyone knows someone now. To honor the lives lost, my team created an overdose memorial where anyone can submit photos and stories of loved ones. Though it’s impossible to say where each of them would be today, I do not doubt they would still be loved. We can’t afford to ignore the public health imperative for harm reduction in the United States. We need it everywhere, for everyone, and we need it now.
 
Heller is the vice president of drug use initiatives at Vital Strategies, where she leads an initiative to reduce overdose deaths in seven of the hardest-hit states.

Cultural Baggage Radio Show 
Pacifica Radio
 
Cultural Baggage (Airs on 26 Pacifica Affiliates in the U.S. and Canada)
 
Guest: Tony Newman
 
April 13, 2022
<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.drugtruth.net/node/8761"> Listen to the program here. </a>
 Pacifica Radio interviews Tony Newman, Vital Strategies Director of Communication, about the urgent need for a stronger, human-centered focus on overdose prevention and harm reduction.

Press Release: President Biden Releases Drug Control Plan with Unprecedented Emphasis on Harm Reduction
 
Vital Strategies Statement: Massive Support of Harm Reduction Needed at National and State Level to Reduce Record Breaking Overdose Deaths 
 
President Joe Biden released his <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/21/fact-sheet-white-house-releases-2022-national-drug-control-strategy-that-outlines-comprehensive-path-forward-to-address-addiction-and-the-overdose-epidemic/"> first national drug control strategy </a> to Congress yesterday as the U.S. overdose crisis reaches historical heights. The White House strategy is the first national plan that emphasizes and officially supports harm reduction strategies. The plan also calls for funding to target drug enforcement and drug trafficking. 
 
Statement from Daliah Heller, Vital Strategies, Vice-President of Drug Use Initiatives: 
 
“President Biden is right to <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-science-health-medication-congress-e97c2b7ffb5bd8f79a8a1277a6b56588?msclkid=fda31771c1a311ecb2fd66d9a698adec"> prioritize harm reduction </a> in his national drug control strategy. Without funding from Congress and states for harm reduction that matches the scale of this crisis, we won’t reverse the escalating tragedy of overdose in this country. Every community deserves access to lifesaving harm reduction tools like naloxone, low threshold methadone and buprenorphine, drug checking tools, and overdose prevention centers. We must remove unnecessary and harmful barriers that restrict access to medications, syringes, and other life-saving services. 
 
“Convening an inter-agency workgroup to combat barriers to treatment, housing, employment, health care, and public accommodations, as outlined in President Biden’s plan, is a step in the right direction, and we look forward to the action this work will produce. But still more needs to be done. Over-the-counter naloxone is a necessary strategy to reduce overdose deaths and should be urgently prioritized. Administration support for overdose prevention centers and more robust recognition and enforcement of anti-discrimination protections for people who use drugs are other clear areas for improvement. Current restrictions on access to medications and other life-saving services means that people continue to die unnecessarily from preventable overdose. 
 
“The country’s punitive, carceral approach to addressing drug use and overdose don’t work- in fact, it has led to more than <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-science-health-medication-congress-e97c2b7ffb5bd8f79a8a1277a6b56588?msclkid=fda31771c1a311ecb2fd66d9a698adec"> 106,000 deaths </a> last year. It is an approach that rests on a racist and punitive foundation with destructive and predictable consequences-filling up our prisons and jails, breaking up families and communities, and producing the worst overdose crisis in history. Fifty years after President Nixon officially launched the war on drugs, it’s time President Biden and states reject failed punitive polices that criminalize and stigmatize people who use drugs and adopt proven harm reduction strategies grounded in health and dignity.” 
 
Background: Vital Strategies National “Support Harm Reduction” Ad Campaign 
 
In February, Vital Strategies launched an interactive, <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/mosaic/*/"> online memorial </a> to honor those who have lost their lives to a drug overdose – more than one million in the past two decades in the U.S. – far surpassing car crashes and firearm fatalities combined. 
 
The memorial’s launch was accompanied by the largest-ever national advertising campaign promoting harm reduction, starting with a full page <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/campaign/page/"> ad
 in the New York Times</a> featuring 200 real people working in harm reduction, on the front lines of the overdose crisis. <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/campaign/page/"> ad
 Three video ads</a> featuring overdose prevention advocates whose own lives were saved by harm reduction is airing 6,000 times in and around Washington, D.C. on a range of channels including: CNN, BET, ESPN, YouTube, Hulu and various podcasts, totaling 37 million impressions. 
 
The campaign highlights five critical, proven harm reduction strategies that need to be embraced: 1) Naloxone 2) Overdose Prevention Centers 3) Drug Checking Resources 4) Safer Drug Use Supplies and 5) Methadone and Buprenorphine. 

 
# # # 
About Vital Strategies 
 
Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. In November 2021, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a five-year, $120 million investment to help combat the overdose crisis in the hard-hit states of Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and Wisconsin. The initiative builds on work of the past three years in Michigan and Pennsylvania, launched in 2018 with $50 million and expands the work to promote improved federal policies. The partnership between Vital Strategies, Pew Charitable Trusts, Johns Hopkins University, CDC Foundation, and Global Health Advocacy Incubator is helping to strengthen and scale up evidence-based, data-driven policies and interventions to reduce overdose risks and save lives.

New CDC Numbers Show Catastrophic 16% Increase in Overdose Deaths from 2020 to 2021 
 
Vital Strategies Calls for Massive Surge in Government Funding and Support for Harm Reduction to Stem the Record Surge in Overdose Deaths May 11, 2022 —More than 107,000 people died of drug overdoses last year, the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a single calendar year in the United States, according to new <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/05/11/illicit-fentanyl-propels-overdose-deaths-us-new-record/9720422002/"> CDC numbers released today. </a>

   More people are dying from an overdose than from gunshot wounds and traffic crashes combined.
 
Statement from Dr. Daliah Heller, Vice President of Drug Use Initiatives at Vital Strategies: 
 
“New data from CDC has confirmed our worst fears. The combined pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic, an increasingly potent illicit drug supply, and an overwhelmed and under-resourced public health system have driven the overdose crisis to catastrophic levels. 
 
“What we’re doing now isn’t working, because the decades-old punitive response to drug use still predominates: The transition to a health-first, harm reduction approach has been slow and piecemeal. Anemic levels of funding and policy support are woefully insufficient to stem the tide of overdose we are experiencing. These data are an urgent call to action for government at all levels: we need to mount a massive public health response to overdose that centers harm reduction and support instead of criminalization and punishment for people who use drugs. 
  
“Far too few people have access to any of the five key interventions we know will reduce overdose deaths: naloxone, drug checking resources, medications for opioid use disorder, safer drug use supplies, and overdose prevention centers. Most of these services are available in some form, in some locations in the majority of states, but they all need to be massively scaled up with an emergency investment. Until such actions are taken, the continued escalation of this overdose crisis seems inevitable. 
 
“No more than one decade ago, misconceptions and stigma about drug use would have made investments in harm reduction strategies politically difficult. But the overdose crisis is truly a bipartisan issue, with overdose deaths touching every community and family. Attitudes about drug use are changing. Our ‘Support Harm Reduction’ campaign has been seen more than 32 million times to date and the candid testimonials of everyday people who have benefited from harm reduction services are almost universally celebrated. 
  
“The devastating rise in overdose deaths is falling most heavily on Black and Indigenous communities, where the need for relief now is more urgent than ever before. A massive surge in funding and support for a harm reduction public health response will save lives immediately, engaging people who use drugs with lifesaving resources and support. The time for action is now.” 
 
 Background: Vital Strategies National Campaign Highlights Five Proven Harm Reduction Interventions 
 
In February, Vital Strategies launched “Support Harm Reduction,” a campaign to highlight five key interventions for preventing overdose that many people in the United States still don’t have access to: naloxone, drug checking resources, medications for opioid use disorder, safer drug use supplies, and overdose prevention centers. 
 
The campaign has been seen more than 32 million times to date and audience metrics indicate widespread approval. The campaign features an interactive, <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org"> online memorial </a> to honor those who have lost their lives to drug overdose – more than one million in the past two decades in the U.S..    
  
The <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/mosaic/*/"> memorial's </a>launch was accompanied by the largest-ever national advertising campaign promoting harm reduction, beginning with a full page <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/campaign/page/"> ad in the New York Times </a> featuring 200 real people working in harm reduction, on the front lines of the overdose crisis. <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/campaign/page/"> Three video ads </a> featuring advocates whose own lives were saved by harm reduction is airing 6,000 times in and around Washington, D.C. on a range of channels including: CNN, BET, ESPN, YouTube, Hulu and various podcasts, totaling 37 million impressions.   
 

# # # 
 About Vital Strategies 
 
Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. In November 2021, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a five-year, $120 million investment to help combat the overdose crisis in the hard-hit states of Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and Wisconsin. The initiative builds on work of the past three years in Michigan and Pennsylvania, launched in 2018 with $50 million and expands the work to promote improved federal policies. The partnership between Vital Strategies, Pew Charitable Trusts, Johns Hopkins University, CDC Foundation, and Global Health Advocacy Incubator is helping to strengthen and scale up evidence-based, data-driven policies and interventions to reduce overdose risks and save lives.

More than 107,000 Americans died from overdoses last year. This drug is behind most deaths. 
 
Deaths from the synthetic opioid fentanyl increased 23% to account for two-thirds of overdoses last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
 
Read the full article <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/05/11/illicit-fentanyl-propels-overdose-deaths-us-new-record/9720422002/"> here. </a>

A Philadelphia Ad Campaign for a Drug Overdose Medication Hopes to Save Lives
 
By Tanya Christian June 15, 2022
 
<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.ebony.com/health/a-philadelphia-ad-campaign-for-drug-overdose-medication-hopes-to-save-lives/">https://www.ebony.com/health/a-philadelphia-ad-campaign-for-drug-overdose-medication-hopes-to-save-lives/ </a>
 
The Black community has come a long way since the crack epidemic hit urban cities across the United States, upending families and destroying whole communities. But despite the advancements in the 50 years since, African Americans, and Black men, in particular, remain at the crossroads of the drug debate. According to a <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/01/19/recent-surge-in-u-s-drug-overdose-deaths-has-hit-black-men-the-hardest/">Pew Research Study </a> released this year, a recent surge in drug overdose deaths has hit Black men the hardest. In Pennsylvania, a <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.vitalstrategies.org/resources/vital-strategies-and-the-pennsylvania-department-of-health-raises-awareness-for-naloxone-to-save-lives-combats-stigma-for-people-affected-by-substance-use/">new $700,000 campaign </a> by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, is driving Pennsylvanians to lifesaving harm reduction measures.
 
“The Wolf Administration remains steadfast in the fight against opioids and the campaign is another example of that commitment,” said Acting Secretary of Health Dr. Denise Johnson in a statement shared with EBONY. “We are working to do everything in our power to protect Pennsylvanians through awareness, education and support. By sharing real stories about real people right in our communities, we believe this media campaign will help tackle the stigma of addiction and promote the use of Naloxone to save lives.”
 
Naloxone is an FDA-approved medicine used to rapidly reverse an opioid overdose. Proponents of the new ad campaign believe that by promoting its use, the country can combat the overdose crisis actively taking place across the nation. “What we are experiencing in this country is largely preventable, and we know that making naloxone widely available is an effective strategy to reducing deaths,” said Daliah Heller, Director of Drug Use Initiatives at Vital Strategies. 
 
The ad campaign spearheaded by the Department of Health in collaboration with Vital Strategies features Pennsylvanians touched by this crisis. Last year alone the state saw <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/drug_poisoning_mortality/drug_poisoning.htm">5,168 people die from an overdose,</a> and a research study conducted by <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2021/january/opiate-overdoses-spike-in-black-philadelphians-but-drop-in-white-residents-since-covid19">Penn Medicine,</a> Penn Medicine found that in 2020, opiate overdoses spiked in Black Philadelphians while dropping in white residents. According to the CDC, the United States as a whole saw nearly 92,000 Americans die <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db428.htm#section_1">of drug overdoses</a>in 2020. And that figure was a 30 percent increase from the year before and a 75 percent increase over five years. Black men accounted for 54.1 fatal drug overdoses for every 100,000 Black men across the country, pointing to an alarming trend.
 
The $700,000 ad buy will run on TV and radio stations as well as streaming platforms like Hulu, and Pandora, and social platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. The campaign is projected to have 44 million impressions. 
 
“We applaud the Department of Health for this moving ad campaign,” said Heller. Her hope is that the dissemination of Naloxone along with the removed stigma will offer “critical information, hope, and dignity for people who use drugs.”

National Overdose Memorial Is Launched as Overdose Deaths Climb to All-Time High Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka, New Jersey Commissioners, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Vital Strategies and Community Organizations Inaugurate Traveling Memorial in New Jersey for International Overdose Awareness Day 
 
Call for Expansion of Syringe Services, Naloxone Distribution, Medication Assisted Treatment, Other Harm Reduction Strategies August 31, 2022 Newark—Today on International Overdose Awareness Day, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka joined Vital Strategies and advocates from Newark Community Street Team and the New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition to unveil the first installation of a traveling national Overdose Memorial. Located at Newark Public Library, the digital display commemorates lives lost to overdose, which reached an all-time high of 107,000 in 2021, and urges support for harm reduction services. The memorial, launched by the global public health organization, Vital Strategies, with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, will travel to other states to engage others to address the overdose crisis. 
 
“The Overdose Memorial puts the human toll of the overdose crisis front and center,” said Dionna King, Technical Advisor for the Vital Strategies Overdose Prevention Program. “Each of the faces and stories of people we share was a tragic, preventable loss. The Memorial highlights that thousands of lives can be saved each year by supporting harm reduction, a practical, effective and humane solution to the overdose crisis. Harm reduction treats people who use drugs with care and dignity instead of pushing them into the shadows or punishing them.” 
 
“Any life lost to overdose is one too many, and this memorial is a poignant reminder of just how many people have lost a loved one to the ongoing overdose crisis here in New Jersey and around the country,” said New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. “My Administration remains committed to pursuing equitable solutions that will help the individuals, families, and communities who have been directly impacted by this issue. We must – and will – continue to work alongside government, health care, and community partners to bolster and expand harm reduction services throughout our state in order to make a real difference in the lives of countless New Jerseyans.”
 
“The overdose crisis has had a detrimental impact on so many lives that no one should have to endure, and we must end it so that families can heal and recover from the stronghold that drugs have on our communities,” said Mayor Ras J. Baraka. “On behalf of the residents of Newark, I thank Vital Strategies and Bloomberg Philanthropies for bringing awareness to this issue. We have to put critical safety nets in place especially given the current climate of uncertainty plaguing our lives, the effects of the COVID pandemic, inflation, social stresses and a myriad of injustices we face every single day. I hope this traveling memorial will help mobilize communities across the country to much needed action while also honoring those we have lost to this epidemic.”
 
“Today we gather to remember the lives of those lost to overdose and reaffirm our commitment to ending the devastating scourge of overdose and the pain it leaves behind,” Human Services Commissioner Sarah Adelman said. “I am honored to join Vital Strategies, the New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition, the Newark Community Street Team and the Newark Public Library to mark the launch of this first memorial installation in honor of Overdose Awareness Day. Bringing attention to these stories helps inspire healing and hope, and raises awareness about the life-saving impact of harm reduction
“This national memorial, which makes its debut in Newark here today, highlights just some of the lives lost nationally to drug overdoses,” said New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli. “Their faces and the stories of their lives from families and friends offer life lessons to all of us who will view it across the country. Through their lives, we rededicate our commitment to working to end the overdose crisis.”
 
“The overdose epidemic has caused so much heartbreak and devastation around our country, and the crisis is only growing worse. We have to come together and take action to save lives, and we know what works – including expanding access to medications and services that are based on data and evidence and treat people with compassion,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, Founder of Blomberg Philanthropies and WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries. “The Overdose Memorial is a powerful way to draw attention to the crisis and the steps we can take to address it with the urgency it requires – and prevent more needless suffering and loss.” 
 
The memorial is part of a national “Support Harm Reduction” media campaign highlighting key interventions – such as safer use supplies, naloxone, medications for opioid use disorder, and drug checking resources like fentanyl test strips – that are proven to save lives, but remain difficult to access for most people in the United States. 
 
In New Jersey, overdose deaths have increased by 230% in the last decade, with 3,120 overdose deaths in 2021. Drug-related deaths among Hispanic/Latinx New Jerseyans are nearly four times higher than a decade ago, and for Black New Jerseyans, deaths have increased more than 250% over that same period. 
 
“Newark Community Street Team launched a new Overdose Response Team initiative this summer responding to overdose calls with University Hospital EMS to help save lives and reduce police interactions and arrests,” said Solomon Middleton-Williams, Newark Community Street Team. “While this is a step our outreach workers can take, we can and must do more. New Jersey should be prioritizing the health and safety of people who use drugs over punishment to bring people out of the shadows and encourage them to seek treatment and support. Punishment is not saving lives.” 
“Overdose is the number one cause of unintentional and preventable deaths in the US, far exceeding deaths from motor vehicle accidents and gun violence combined. And the extreme rise in overdose deaths is being felt most dramatically by Black and Indigenous communities,” said Dr. Amesika N Nyaku, Trustee at New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition. “Harm reduction strategies, from syringe services to naloxone distribution to drug decriminalization, save lives and recognize the humanity of people. This is an emergency situation and calls for an emergency response by engaging people who use drugs with lifesaving resources and support.” 
 
The public is invited to continue submitting stories in remembrance of their loved ones to the overdose memorial directly through the Support Harm Reduction the site or through Instagram. 
 
 Background: 
 
The Newark overdose memorial is part of the “Support Harm Reduction” campaign, the largest-ever national advertising initiative promoting harm reduction, launched by public health organization Vital Strategies. The campaign was launched in February with a full page ad in the New York Times featuring 200 real people working in harm reduction, on the front lines of the overdose crisis. On the heels of the New York Times ad, three video ads featuring advocates whose own lives were saved by harm reduction, began airing in and around Washington, D.C. on a range of channels including: CNN, BET, ESPN, YouTube, Hulu and on various podcasts. The campaign has generated 44 million impressions to date. 
The campaign highlights key interventions for preventing overdose that many people in the United States still don’t have access to, for example: naloxone to reverse an overdose, drug checking resources, medications to treat opioid use disorder, and safer drug use supplies. The campaign features an interactive, online memorial to honor those who have lost their lives to drug overdose – more than one million people in the U.S in the past two decades. 
 

# # # 
 About Vital Strategies’ Overdose Prevention Program 
 
In November 2021, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a five-year, $120 million investment to help combat the overdose crisis in the hard-hit states of Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina and Wisconsin and advocate for federal policies to expand treatment access and harm reduction with a goal of accelerating progress in reducing overdose deaths nationally. 
The partnership between Vital Strategies, Pew Charitable Trusts, Johns Hopkins University, CDC Foundation, and Global Health Advocacy Incubator is helping to strengthen and scale up evidence-based, data-driven policies and interventions to reduce overdose risks and save lives. The initiative builds on work of the past three years in Michigan and Pennsylvania, launched in 2018 with $50 million and expands the work to promote improved federal policies.

Drug overdose memorial to debut in New Jersey | Opinion 
By Stephen Hamill 
 
AUGUST 30, 2022
 

<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.nj.com/opinion/2022/08/national-overdose-memorial-to-debut-in-new-jersey-opinion.html">https://www.nj.com/opinion/2022/08/national-overdose-memorial-to-debut-in-new-jersey-opinion.html</a>

 Acxel’s a big guy, probably 250 pounds, with a black cap, and camo pants. You might be surprised to see him teaching a crochet class in his Crocs with a baby Yoda on them. It’s a class where people who use drugs learn to make hats and scarves to wear on cold streets or give away to friends.
 
As a harm reduction worker, the care and dignity Acxel dispenses are as important as the overdose-reversing naloxone and sterile syringes he gives out. And he should know. When he was using drugs, compassionate caregivers at a harm reduction program helped him to stay safe as he made changes that led, step by step, to a healthier and stable life. Now Axcel is passing on that same care, joining thousands of harm reduction workers in communities across the country who are on the front lines of America’s overdose crisis.
 
We desperately need to support and expand these services. America’s overdose crisis is growing and now claims more than 107,000 deaths per year. It’s the nexus of a lot of failures: a failed mental health system, a racist and punitive response to drug use, and a dearth of health and social supports for people struggling with addiction, all of which can turn surmountable problems into life-or-death situations.
 
Part of that nexus, too, is a culture that marginalizes and shuns people who use drugs. Without adequate support and accessible effective systems of care, too many of us are left without resources to respond to the needs of loved ones in our families and communities. Our shame and silence further exacerbate the problem.
 
Acxel’s story shows how moving from stigma to love and acceptance can transform lives and communities. But how can we reshape a culture with such negative connotations about drug use and overdose? We can be inspired by history. In the 1980s, as HIV/AIDS ravaged two already stigmatized populations — gay men and people injecting drugs — prejudice inhibited progress.
 
To many, AIDS was something that happened to other people, people who engaged in “bad behaviors.” It felt more distant and less urgent for many, and government inaction reflected that sentiment. In response, activists mounted campaigns to challenge stigma, demand government action, change social norms and build the understanding that everyone is at risk.
 
The AIDS Quilt was among those campaigns, a tapestry of memories and loss to represent and personalize the destructive toll of the epidemic throughout the population. It crisscrossed the country — and eventually the world — creating a rallying point that helped galvanize communities, celebrities, and politicians to action.
 
The overdose crisis needs similar campaigns to build popular acceptance and momentum so that every person can have access to harm reduction, including naloxone to reverse overdoses, medications for opioid use disorder, overdose prevention centers, syringe access programs, and safer drug use supplies. Overdose has touched one in three American households. We believe memorializing the people lost to overdose is a powerful reminder that overdose happens everywhere, in every community and that harm reduction needs urgent support.
 
Inspired by the vision of the AIDS Quilt, this International Overdose Awareness day, Vital Strategies is launching the first physical installation of a traveling Overdose Memorial, beginning in New Jersey, one of the country’s hardest-hit states.
 
Opening on Aug. 31, Overdose Awareness Day and running over the next 10 days at Newark Public Library, the Memorial will collect and share stories into a digital mosaic, naloxone trainings will be held, and the site will be a pulpit for survivors, activists and politicians to accelerate local support for harm reduction.
 
The memorial will travel to Michigan and Pennsylvania later this year, and add four more states in 2023. We hope to see the Overdose Memorial in statehouses, civic centers, malls and business parks—bringing the invisible crisis to light in the places we live, work and play.
 
We wish for a world where thousands more people like Acxel are supported, in every community, to provide compassion and care to people who use drugs. We need to invest in and celebrate community-based harm reduction services.
 
This Overdose Awareness Day is an opportunity to take a step toward that future and break down the barriers that stand in the way, including changing our culture.
 
One way is to honor the lives of those we have lost to overdose and use their stories to highlight that we are all at risk from a system that abandons people who use drugs instead of caring for them.
 
We can take action to support harm reduction: visit supportharmreduction.org and find a local center where you can donate or volunteer. Share a story of a loved one lost online or at the Newark Public Library in New Jersey, if you’re nearby. Together we can grow the movement of people who want to transform the United States from a society that punishes drug use to one that offers support with dignity, compassion, and care.
 
Stephen Hamill is vice president of policy advocacy and communication at Vital Strategies and supports the organization’s overdose prevention program.
 
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
 
Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinionand find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.

Memorial to lives lost to overdose is launched in Newark 

AUGUST 31, 2022
 

<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" https://www.pbs.org/video/overdose-memorial-1661971519/">https://www.pbs.org/video/overdose-memorial-1661971519/</a>
 
<div class="pbs-viral-player-wrapper" style="position: relative; padding-top: calc(56.25% + 43px);"><iframe src="https://player.pbs.org/viralplayer/3071447451/" allowfullscreen allow="encrypted-media" style="position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; border: 0;"></iframe></div>

 More than 50 people gathered at Newark Public Library to unveil the first installation of a traveling national Overdose Memorial. The digital display, which commemorates lives lost to overdose, will travel across the United States. Opening Aug. 31, Overdose Awareness Day, the memorial is on display in Newark for 10 days. More than 100,000 people die of drug overdoses in the U.S every year.

Traveling Overdose Memorial in New Jersey Until Sept. 9 
By Dino Flammia
 
Sept. 5, 2022
 

<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"https://nj1015.com/traveling-overdose-memorial-in-new-jersey-until-sept-9/">https://nj1015.com/traveling-overdose-memorial-in-new-jersey-until-sept-9/</a>
 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FLbDAAVWhM8" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 NEWARK — A national traveling memorial that honors the lives lost to drug use has made its first stop, right here in New Jersey.
 
The interactive digital display, unveiled by the New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition on Aug. 31, will be running at Newark Public Library until Sept. 9. Groups involved with the memorial say it's later headed to "other states hardest hit by the overdose crisis."
 
Those on site will be able to learn more about each decedent whose loved ones shared memories through the memorial. The video that accompanies the feature can be viewed at the end of this article.
 
"Their faces and the stories of their lives from families and friends offer life lessons to all of us who will view it across the country," said New Jersey Department of Health Judith Persichilli, who was on hand for the unveiling of the memorial. "Through their lives, we rededicate our commitment to working to end the overdose crisis."
 
New Jersey was home to more than 3,100 drug overdose deaths in 2021, according to preliminary numbers. Overdose deaths in the state have increased by 230% in the last decade.
 
The memorial is part of the national Support Harm Reduction campaign, launched in February 2022 by public health organization Vital Strategies. The campaign's goal is steer officials' efforts away from punishing drug users and focus those efforts on providing better access to services and materials that can reduce the risks associated with substance abuse, such as housing programs, the opioid antidote naloxone, and fentanyl test strips.
 
"The memorial highlights that thousands of lives can be saved each year by supporting harm reduction, a practical, effective and humane solution to the overdose crisis," said Dionna King, technical adviser for the Vital Strategies Overdose Prevention Program. "Harm reduction treats people who use drugs with care and dignity instead of pushing them into the shadows or punishing them."

Harm reduction advocates gather in Newark to bring awareness to drug overdoses 
By SOPHIE NIETO-MUNOZ
 
AUGUST 31, 2022
 

<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://newjerseymonitor.com/2022/08/31/harm-reduction-advocates-gather-in-newark-to-bring-awareness-to-drug-overdoses/">https://newjerseymonitor.com/2022/08/31/harm-reduction-advocates-gather-in-newark-to-bring-awareness-to-drug-overdoses/</a>

 As the supervisor of an EMS team out of University Hospital, Will Massenberg has witnessed hundreds of overdose deaths in Newark. 
 
But he also had to deal with loss firsthand after his uncle died in 2005, followed by his brother in 2017, and then his sister in 2021 — all lost to the opioid epidemic. 
 
“It affects everybody. Every day that this crisis keeps happening, it’s a reminder of my brother and my sister,” Massenberg said Wednesday. “It happens a lot in this city.” 
 
Massenberg was at the Newark Public Library as officials unveiled a digital mosaic to mark International Overdose Awareness Day. The traveling memorial will head to Michigan and Pennsylvania later in the year, and will stop in four other states heavily impacted by the opioid crisis and overdose deaths. 
 
More than 3,100 New Jerseyans died in 2021 of suspected drug overdoses, up 230% from a decade ago. While rates have remained largely steady among white residents, Black and Latino residents continue to see high rates of drug-related deaths. Across the country, overdoses led to 107,000 deaths last year. 
 
The Newark installation, sponsored by Vital Strategies, is part of a nationwide campaign to support harm reduction by providing test strips for fentanyl , safer use supplies like clean needles, and medication for opioid withdrawal. The mosaic is intended to communicate just how many people — from all walks of life and of all ages and races — have lost their lives to the opioid epidemic. 
 
Amesika Nyaku, a physician-scientist and trustee at the New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition, stressed there are additional policy changes state officials can make to help prevent drug overdoses. She pointed to affordable housing and increased access to health care, education, and job opportunities, plus investment in communities that have suffered due to the war on drugs and opioid abuse. 
 
New Jersey is receiving $641 million from settlements with opioid distributors and makers, with the money being split evenly between the state and 241 local municipalities. The settlement agreements are between the state and Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen. 
 
Nyaku also called on state officials, including Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli and Human Services Commissioner Sarah Adelman, who both spoke at the event, to roll out more syringe exchanges and increase access to methadone. 
 
“We’ve made major strides here in New Jersey to move and change policy, and now it’s about seeing that effective use of it,” she said. “With the overdoses that are happening in our communities every day, these are the solutions. This harm education saves lives.” 
 
A law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in January allows the state Health Department to approve new safe-syringe sites to help people seek treatment and avoid infections or diseases from sharing needles. He also signed legislation decriminalizing possession of syringes and creating local overdose fatality review teams to look at drug-relation deaths.
 
Mayor Ras Baraka, Solomon Middleton-Williams of the Newark Community Street Team, and Dionna King with Vital Strategies’ overdose prevention program also joined the event. 
 
Over the next 10 days, Newark will host free naloxone training with the city’s community street team and host survivors and activists for discussions at the library, located at 5 Washington St.

Harm reduction advocates gather in Newark to bring awareness to drug overdoses 
By SOPHIE NIETO-MUNOZ
 
AUGUST 31, 2022
 

<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/harm-reduction-advocates-gather-in-newark-to-bring-awareness-to-drug-overdoses/article_e3296844-a2e2-5089-8e49-4f29c984282f.html">https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/harm-reduction-advocates-gather-in-newark-to-bring-awareness-to-drug-overdoses/article_e3296844-a2e2-5089-8e49-4f29c984282f.html</a>

 As the supervisor of an EMS team out of University Hospital, Will Massenberg has witnessed hundreds of overdose deaths in Newark. 
 
But he also had to deal with loss firsthand after his uncle died in 2005, followed by his brother in 2017, and then his sister in 2021 — all lost to the opioid epidemic. 
 
“It affects everybody. Every day that this crisis keeps happening, it’s a reminder of my brother and my sister,” Massenberg said Wednesday. “It happens a lot in this city.” 
 
Massenberg was at the Newark Public Library as officials unveiled a digital mosaic to mark International Overdose Awareness Day. The traveling memorial will head to Michigan and Pennsylvania later in the year, and will stop in four other states heavily impacted by the opioid crisis and overdose deaths. 
 
More than 3,100 New Jerseyans died in 2021 of suspected drug overdoses, up 230% from a decade ago. While rates have remained largely steady among white residents, Black and Latino residents continue to see high rates of drug-related deaths. Across the country, overdoses led to 107,000 deaths last year. 
 
The Newark installation, sponsored by Vital Strategies, is part of a nationwide campaign to support harm reduction by providing test strips for fentanyl , safer use supplies like clean needles, and medication for opioid withdrawal. The mosaic is intended to communicate just how many people — from all walks of life and of all ages and races — have lost their lives to the opioid epidemic. 
 
Amesika Nyaku, a physician-scientist and trustee at the New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition, stressed there are additional policy changes state officials can make to help prevent drug overdoses. She pointed to affordable housing and increased access to health care, education, and job opportunities, plus investment in communities that have suffered due to the war on drugs and opioid abuse. 
 
New Jersey is receiving $641 million from settlements with opioid distributors and makers, with the money being split evenly between the state and 241 local municipalities. The settlement agreements are between the state and Johnson & Johnson, McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen. 
 
Nyaku also called on state officials, including Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli and Human Services Commissioner Sarah Adelman, who both spoke at the event, to roll out more syringe exchanges and increase access to methadone. 
 
“We’ve made major strides here in New Jersey to move and change policy, and now it’s about seeing that effective use of it,” she said. “With the overdoses that are happening in our communities every day, these are the solutions. This harm education saves lives.” 
 
A law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in January allows the state Health Department to approve new safe-syringe sites to help people seek treatment and avoid infections or diseases from sharing needles. He also signed legislation decriminalizing possession of syringes and creating local overdose fatality review teams to look at drug-relation deaths.
 
Mayor Ras Baraka, Solomon Middleton-Williams of the Newark Community Street Team, and Dionna King with Vital Strategies’ overdose prevention program also joined the event. 
 
Over the next 10 days, Newark will host free naloxone training with the city’s community street team and host survivors and activists for discussions at the library, located at 5 Washington St.

Mass Calls for Harm Reduction on International Overdose Awareness Day 
By Alex Norcia
 
AUGUST 31, 2022
 

<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"https://filtermag.org/harm-reduction-overdose-awareness-day/">https://filtermag.org/harm-reduction-overdose-awareness-day/</a>

 n International Overdose Awareness Day, August 31, more than 50 harm reduction groups in California called on the state government to take action to end the overdose crisis. The groups—which include the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County and the HIV Education Prevention Project of Alameda County—are all part of the California Syringe Exchange Programs (CASEP) Coalition, a statewide mutual-aid and advocacy network of syringe service providers.
 
“California’s $308 billion 2022-23 state budget does not include the word overdose one time despite it continuing to be the leading cause of accidental death in California,” stated a coalition press release. There were more than 10,000 drug-related deaths in California in 2021, among more than 107,000 nationwide as the crisis continues to grow year-on-year.
 
The coalition announced that it would host rallies during the day, demanding that the state legislature and administration do more to fund harm reduction programs. Earlier this year, the release noted, the legislature actually cut funding for the California Harm Reduction Initiative, “used to staff low-barrier harm reduction programs at over 1,000 unique sites in 42 counties.”
 
The collective move comes a little over a week after Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom—who in the past said that he had “long supported the cutting edge of harm reduction strategies” and was “very, very open” to safe consumption sites (SCS)—vetoed legislation that would have funded pilot programs in Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Like naloxone, medications such as methadone and buprenorphine, and safe supply programs, SCS are proven to save lives.
 
“Governor Newsom not only used his pen to cosign our participants to death, he did so while blaming his choice on our harm reduction infrastructure.”
 
Advocates had held out hope until the last minute that Newsom would sign the bill (SB 57), or at the very least let the deadline expire, which would have seen it become law. Instead, he wrote in his veto letter that “the unlimited number of safe injection sites that this bill would authorize—facilities which could exist well into the later part of this decade—could induce a world of unintended consequences.”
 
“The veto of SB 57 by Governor Newsom to pilot overdose prevention programs in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles further signals a trend by the state to continue to abandon entire communities of people who use drugs, the majority of them unhoused, without essential life-saving tools,” Laura Guzman, the senior director of the National Harm Reduction Coalition in Oakland, said in a press statement. “We believe that overdose deaths are preventable, and will continue to organize and demand that our communities are a priority and must be taken care of first.”
 
Newsom’s apparent reversal, which arrived after reports that he was waffling on his decision, has mainly been viewed in the context of a potential presidential run in 2024—and how the would-be candidate feared right-wingers might portray the narrative of a lawmaker with sympathy for people who use drugs.
 
“Governor Newsom not only used his pen to cosign our participants to death, he did so while blaming his choice on our harm reduction infrastructure,” Soma Snakeoil, the executive director and co-founder of Sidewalk Project in Los Angeles, said in a press statement. “The harm reduction community in California has strong, engaged local leadership, thoughtful drug policymakers, government & public health buy-in, and a well-documented history of evidence based on the ground practices. Some of our programs are so sustainable they have been around for 30 plus years. We are ready & willing to save lives, even if Newsom is not. This decision was not about our lack of preparation, it was about his lack of political courage.”
 
The bulk of events were in North America, where the presence of illicit fentanyl in drug supplies—but above all, the punitive prohibition that fosters this and other unsafe conditions—has driven deaths to an all-time high.
 
International Overdose Awareness Day, which has been marked each year since 2001, saw more than 600 registered events taking place all over the world, from Denmark to Tanzania. The bulk of them, however, were in North America, where the presence of illicit fentanyl in drug supplies—but above all, the punitive prohibition that fosters this and other unsafe conditions—has driven deaths to an all-time high.
 
Commemorating the dead and amplifying calls for harm reduction were the purposes of the launch—by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, with Vital Strategies, Newark Community Street Team and the New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition—of a “traveling national Overdose Memorial” featuring a physical installation and digital display. “The memorial is part of a national ‘Support Harm Reduction’ media campaign,” said a press release, “highlighting key interventions—such as safer use supplies, naloxone, medications for opioid use disorder, and drug checking resources like fentanyl test strips—that are proven to save lives, but remain difficult to access for most people in the United States.”
 
One of the most high-profile protests has been in Manhattan, where VOCAL-NY led demands on the streets for Governor Kathy Hochul to authorize SCS statewide. The first two sanctioned sites in the United States, which opened in the city in late 2021, have since averted hundreds of overdoses.
 
In Canada, the Vancouver-based Drug User Liberation Front marked one month of operating an evaluative pilot of its compassion club safe supply model by giving away “30 grams of community regulated safe supply” to drug user groups in British Colombia, and by launching a new legal bid for its model to be federally sanctioned. Health Canada denied authorization earlier this year; DULF has repeatedly distributed checked drugs, highlighting the urgent need for safe supply amid a toxic unregulated market.
 
In recognition that the word “overdose” is frequently a misnomer—most deaths involve combinations of different drugs, often consumed unknowingly—the Canada-based National Safer Supply Community of Practice meanwhile announced that it was reframing the day as Toxic Drug Poisoning Awareness Day, “because we know that the unregulated drug supply is the predominant cause of overdose deaths in Canada.”
 
Without radical policy changes to increase access to proven harm reduction resources and make drugs safer, the signs are that the North American crisis will continue to worsen. When hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths haven’t been enough to prompt this shift from policymakers, advocates’ anger is as warranted as it is palpable.

How should N.J. spend $641M to stop fatal opioid overdoses? Murphy wants to hear from you. 
By Susan K. Livio
 
Sept. 1, 2022
 

<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"https://www.nj.com/politics/2022/09/how-should-nj-spend-641m-to-stop-fatal-opioid-overdoses-murphy-wants-to-hear-from-you.html">https://www.nj.com/politics/2022/09/how-should-nj-spend-641m-to-stop-fatal-opioid-overdoses-murphy-wants-to-hear-from-you.html</a>

 With opioid overdoses claiming the lives of 16,400 people in New Jersey over the last five years — the equivalent of wiping out the entire population of South River in Middlesex County or Cinnaminson Township in Burlington County— Gov. Phil Murphy is asking the public for advice on how to prevent further addiction and deaths.
 
New Jersey will receive $641 million over the next 20 years as part of a settlement from Johnson & Johnson and distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen for promoting the widespread use of the addictive painkillers. Murphy signed an executive order Wednesday creating an advisory council and an online portal that will solicit suggestions from the public on how these funds should be spent.
 
“With the funds our state will receive through these settlement agreements, we have a meaningful opportunity to improve and save the lives of countless New Jerseyans,” the governor said in a statement. “As we determine the best use of these funds to help combat the opioid crisis here in New Jersey, my Administration wants to hear from members of the public.”
 
The $26 billion settlement requires states to use the money for treatment, preventing overdoses, research, “addressing the needs of criminal justice-involved individuals (and) offering harm reduction services,” according to the governor’s announcement.
 
The money is expected to be shared between the state and select counties and municipalities. The state has asked each county to create their own advisory councils to recommend how the funds should be spent, the executive order said.
 
The statewide Opioid Recovery and Remediation Advisory Council will be led by state Human Services Commissioner Sarah Adelman, and include 10 public members including “people who have lived experience with the opioid epidemic” and public health experts, the executive order said. Council members also will include acting state Attorney General Matthew Platkin, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli and state Children and Families Commissioner Christine Norbut Beyer.
 
Members of the public may go to the state online portal and submit their ideas for spending the settlement money. The portal will close on Oct. 31, 2022. People may also share their ideas in writing to Opioid Funds Proposal, c/o PO Box 001, Trenton, NJ 08625.
 
Input can range from “general suggestions to specific project proposals,” the announcement said.
 
The council will also help determine how to spent New Jersey’s yet-to-be-determined share of a $450 million settlement with opioid maker Endo International PLC and its lenders, accused of using deceptive marketing practices that minimized the risk of prolonged use of its opioids, according to an announcement from the state Attorney General’s Office on Aug. 22. The Ireland-based company filed for bankruptcy last month.
 
Murphy made the announcement Wednesday on International Overdose Awareness Day.
 
Earlier in the day, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Murphy administration officials joined the public health organization Vital Strategies and advocates from Newark Community Street Team and the New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition to unveil a traveling national memorial to those who have died from drug overdoses. The digital memorial is located at the Newark Public Library.
 
Last year, 107,000 people in the nation died from drug overdoses, setting a record. New Jersey accounted for 3,120 of those deaths, according to statement from the coalition.
 
“On Overdose Awareness Day, we honor those lives lost, those communities devasted, and the broken hearts of family and friends. Through their lives, we rededicate our commitment to working to end the opioid crisis,” Persichilli said. “The use of these settlement funds will help us expand and create programs that will restore lives and help save lives.”

Stigmatizing Drug Use Is Killing Us, But Why Is It So Hard to Stop? 
By Sharda Sekaran
 
Sept. 8, 2022
 

<a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"https://filtermag.org/drug-use-stigma/">https://filtermag.org/drug-use-stigma/</a>

 Despite significant strides in drug policy in recent decades, and changing attitudes about some substances, stigmatization of people who use drugs remains a pervasive challenge—one that puts our health, wellbeing and lives at serious risk. Why is the temptation to judge and shame certain people who use drugs such a tough habit to break?
 
Sociologist Erving Goffman’s 1963 book, Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity, was considered groundbreaking work for its time, and continues to be relevant today. The English word “stigma” stems from the Greek stizein, meaning “to tattoo.” Goffman describes how stigma, for the ancient Greeks, was explicit and visual. A stigma was a bodily evident sign to indicate someone was of low status, disgraced, or for whatever reason best for respectable people to avoid. For instance, a person might be physically branded as a slave.
 
By establishing their distance from the stigmatized group, dominant groups benefit from an elevated sense of self and status. As with the ancient Greeks, the more visible and obvious the stigma, the more powerful and inescapable it becomes. Throughout human history, physical markers have enabled conquest and subjugation. These can be imposed on the stigmatized group, such as forcing Jewish people to wear the yellow star of David in Nazi Germany. Other people are born stigmatized, such as with systemic racism, which degrades people’s humanity based on phenotype or skin pigmentation.
 
The physical effects of certain drug use can also be used to reinforce stigma. As one harm reduction outreach worker described to Filter, “It was really hard for me to re-enter the workforce, even with the nicest clothing, still having track marks and all this other baggage that you can see.”
 
Like prestige symbols, stigma symbols offer a shortcut for establishing hierarchical position. A flashy car, impressive job title and expensive clothes suggest success and worth. On the other hand, being branded a drug user provokes fear, shame, judgment and the threat of prison. As Sarah Wakeman, medical director for Substance Use Disorder at Mass General Brigham in Boston, told Filter, much of it boils down to “The very fact that we criminalize certain types of drug use. The whole point of criminalizing something is to increase the stigma of that action.”
 
The imposition of stigma inherently devalues a person’s humanity. The “drug user” label suggests that they can be routinely subjected to a multitude of discriminations. As Goffman explains, “By definition, of course, we believe the person with a stigma is not quite human … On this assumption we exercise varieties of discrimination, through which we effectively, if often unthinkingly, reduce his life chances.”
 
“We have bars which are perfectly socially acceptable … then criminalize people who need a safe space to use other types of substances.”
Stigmatization of drug use is used as grounds to deny people’s rights to housing, employment, education, health care and more. Societal shaming promotes riskier, isolated drug use while diminishing access to critical harm reduction resources and treatment—literally costing lives.
 
Drug use stigma is contextual. Moral judgement of drug users is often hypocritical, as well as discriminatory. People often make ethical allowances to justify their own methods for getting buzzed.
 
“I think there’s still this intense othering of people who use certain types of drugs and this notion of a distinct us versus them,” Dr. Wakeman said. “You know, there are those people who inject drugs, for example, or those people are different than us who use alcohol. Just think about the conversation around overdose prevention sites or supervised consumption spaces. We have bars which are perfectly socially acceptable for the people who are making the laws and policies that then criminalize people who need a safe space to use other types of substances.”
 
More privileged people can confine their drug use to private spaces, while maintaining conventional lifestyles and careers. They are more likely to avoid the risks of poverty, criminalization, and limited access to safe supplies that result in physical markers of poor health, lack of nutrition and subsequent damage to their appearance. “We don’t have the same degree of stigma, or even outright hatred that you can see towards certain communities of people who use drugs. That is connected to a long history of racism in the United States and how that has driven a lot of decisions around drug policy,” Dr. Wakeman said.
 
Jarringly, the more disadvantaged the person—living in public housing, perhaps, or on the streets—the more likely they are to be placed in a position where their drug use is made visible and subjected to the most stigma. Terrell Jones, the outreach and advocacy program manager at New York Harm Reduction Educators and a long-time harm reduction leader, told Filter that the hardships of the COVID pandemic have exacerbated the problem. “Stigma is at an all-time high because of the increase of drug use due to social and economic factors, where people have started using more and it’s more and more public drug use that people are experiencing,” Jones said. “People are walking around with their kids and seeing injection drug use and it hurts.”
 
“People disrespected me, dehumanized me, mocked me, and put me into a deeper hole of my drug use.”
For the most vulnerable, their drug use is transformed into the defining aspect of who they are. They are subjected to dehumanizing labels. Unlike stigmas placed on people who are, for instance, disabled or suffering from an illness, drug-use stigmas—in common with those around sex work, weight or gender non-conformity—often result from perceptions of a moral failing, indulgent behavior or depravity.
 
“People disrespected me, dehumanized me, mocked me, and put me into a deeper hole of my drug use,” Jones said. “The community needs to understand how much of a part they play. Instead of putting people down, give them some kind of resource. That goes a long way. This person is a human being. People act like drug users come from another world, like aliens, outcasts … people where something went wrong.”
 
Stigma damages trust and access to effective care for people who use drugs in medical settings, creating further risk. “Doctors and nurses are humans and members of society,” Dr. Wakeman said. “They’ve been influenced by the same societal stigma that laypeople have, particularly because learning about drug use and addiction and harm reduction is generally not a part of our medical training or hasn’t been to date … I think there sometimes is cognitive dissonance for health care providers in that they’ve been taught that drug use is bad. Often it’s actually the policies around drug use that cause the most harm. But I think in people’s minds, there’s this notion that drug use is harmful to your health, so if someone is engaging in that behavior, they must not value their health.”
 
“Reframing that narrative,” she continued, “is, ‘Actually people who use drugs have not forfeited their human rights, including their right to the best possible health care.’”
 
Stigmas even follow people into treatment and recovery programs, where expectation of total abstinence dominates and people who “relapse”—or even who use certain medications, like methadone—are judged harshly or deliberately excluded from services and support. “The narrative was so strong that if you’re not abstinent, and not abstinent in this way with this kind of program model, you are still perceived as less than,” one former participant told Filter.
 
Harm reduction at its core is a strategy against stigma. Giving people the space and freedom to manage their own health without judgment or coercion is a core component. Harm reduction is not just a strategy to minimize the risks of drug use, but a philosophy for self-care and community care that promotes compassion, openness and practical knowledge that can improve and save lives.
 
But harm reduction is also dismissed by abstinence-only believers who label its practices as permissive or “enabling.” Before we can shift the general population’s stigmatization of drug use, perhaps we need to dismantle the exclusion and shaming within the drug treatment and recovery community, which pushes people out of the services and support that could help them stabilize or save their lives.
 
After a year of reporting on the overdose crisis for Vox, journalist German Lopez declared that stigma against drug use is “the single biggest reason America is failing in its response to the opioid epidemic.” Overdose claimed over 100,0000 lives in the US in 2021. These were deaths that could have been prevented, by naloxone, methadone, buprenorphine, drug checking services and safe consumption sites, among other resources.
 
Stephen Hamill is vice president for policy advocacy and communication at Vital Strategies, a public health nonprofit. Earlier this year, Vital Strategies launched the first national advertising campaign to raise awareness about harm reduction as a remedy for the US overdose crisis (full disclosure: I served as a communications advisor for the campaign). “As long as people see this issue as something that doesn’t affect them, it will never gain political priority,” Hamill told Filter. “You will continue to see NIMBYism around putting services in every community because they feel like, People like me don’t need a needle exchange. We don’t need safe supplies or drug testing kits. It’s those bad people who are going to benefit.”
 
Humanizing those “other” people was a core strategy of the Vital Strategies campaign to subvert the stigmas that create obstacles for harm reduction programs. It featured the stories of people who use or have used drugs, presenting them as human beings who are loved, and who are contributing to their communities as harm reduction workers.
 
Dr. Wakeman also described a program to challenge stigma in hospital settings, whereby patients who use drugs volunteer to return to the hospital and visit with the staff where they were hospitalized. “I think that can be incredibly humanizing because people who work in hospitals and emergency rooms in particular often only encounter folks in a moment of crisis,” she said. “They may see someone when they’re in the throes of active withdrawal or after an overdose … it can be really powerful to just connect with the person outside of that to see them in their normal clothes and see them as a sister or a father or just a human being, essentially.”
 
“We do need more non-stigmatized people with courage enough to acknowledge our own drug use.”
Another approach, most prominently advocated by Dr. Carl Hart, a neuroscientist, noted author and psychology professor at Columbia University, calls for privileged drug users to put skin in the game by publicly outing their own drug use.
 
Admittedly, the ability to keep one’s drug use private is a benefit of privilege. It’s a tough ask to let go of that benefit and risk the curse of stigma. Yet we do need more non-stigmatized people with courage enough to acknowledge our own drug use. Whether it’s caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, mushrooms, marijuana or opioids, just about all of us have consumed substances that alter our consciousness. Being open and honest with ourselves might not only make us better, more compassionate and less judgmental people, it could also improve our own health.
 
If we look to comparable campaigns to end stigma—for instance, around HIV, mental health and sexual orientation—the template we need looks like a web of all of the above. We need to draw attention to the human cost of stigma, the people whose lives were cut short and their grieving loved ones. We need the statistics that demonstrate what compassionate and non-judgmental care can accomplish. We also need the stories of people living fulfilling lives, after using drugs or while still using them, that transcend stigma. We need to challenge the use of dehumanizing language and labels that reinforce discrimination—such as the word “clean,” which suggests that people who use drugs are “dirty.” We need to hold the media accountable for their role in perpetuating drug-use myths and stereotypes.
 
As Hamill said, “Stigma can be a way of disassociating yourself from the risk. It’s like that’s something that wouldn’t happen to someone like me, that happens to these other people who have bad behaviors, or they’re bad types of people.”
 
To change this, we need to be willing to let go of the hollow sense of status that labeling and judging others may give us. Perhaps if we can learn to acknowledge that our own shit indeed does stink, we can avoid constantly stepping in it.

Press Release: For International Overdose Awareness Day, Hundreds of Communities Take Action to Stem Overdose Crisis
 
Groups Across Country are Mounting Local Efforts to Address Rising Tide of Overdose with Harm Reduction #SupportHarmReduction #OverdoseMemorial 
(New York City, USA) – For International Overdose Awareness Day (IOAD) on August 31, public health organization Vital Strategies and hundreds of organizations and government agencies across the country are mounting community memorial events and rallying support for harm reduction services to stem the rising tide of overdose, which has claimed more than 100,000 lives in each of the past two years. 
 
“August 31, Overdose Awareness Day, is an important time to honor the lives of family and friends who we have tragically lost to overdose, now the leading cause of death for people under 50 in this country,” said Tony Newman, Communications Director at Vital Strategies’ Overdose Prevention Program. “Inspired by the AIDS quilt, we are turning grief and anger into action. The Support Harm Reduction campaign is mobilizing communities across the country to build support for harm reduction, the proven public health solution to the overdose crisis.” 
 
The week of IOAD will feature diverse events across the country, ranging from rallies and vigils to events at firehouses to community centers, health clinics and harm reduction centers.
 
Vital Strategies <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMIHNU8eiQY"> mailed out 300 “DIY Boxes” </a> to groups in more than 21 states that offer a <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/toolkit/national-video/"> menu of campaign content and products </a> to organize events, including: digital resources like an online overdose memorial, localized state videos on the overdose crisis and harm reduction interventions to reduce deaths and suffering, in addition to various physical items to display and distribute. At each site, campaign supporters will generate visibility through tables, banners, and leaflets, and will work with local media outlets to garner attention. A sample of events to be held include:
 
• Raleigh, North Carolina: <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://qcnerve.com/students-for-sensible-drug-policy-launches-statewide-fellowship/"> Students for Sensible Drug Policy’s Youth Overdose Prevention Fellows </a> are organizing events in five counties across North Carolina. One event focused on overdose prevention and awareness among indigenous community members will take place at the Coharie Tribal Center in Sampson County on August 31, and will include traditional song and dance, and a talking circle for young people who have been impacted by the overdose crisis in their communities. 
 
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin: A broad coalition, including the <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://city.milwaukee.gov/Office-of-African-American-Affairs"> Office of African American Affairs </a> and the nonprofit <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://samadshouse.org/"> Samad’s House </a> are organizing families, friends and survivors of overdose to connect with community organizations, memorialize their lost loved ones, and receive resources for preventing overdose death, including naloxone and fentanyl test strips. The first of three events is at Samad’s House on August 31 at 10 am and will include art, painting and a grief counselor on hand.
 
• Peoria, Illinois: <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://joltfoundation.org/"> Jolt Harm Reduction </a> and a coalition of groups including <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="http://broken-no-more.org/"> Broken No More </a> and <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="http://grasphelp.org/"> GRASP </a> are organizing a vigil and cookout on August 31, 5-8 pm. The event will include families who have lost loved ones and harm reduction providers who are speaking in favor of harm reduction and opposed to the criminalization of people who use drugs. 
 
“I lost my son Joshua to overdose and have dedicated my life since then to helping other families who have lost loved ones to overdose,” said Tami Olt, executive director of Broken No More and GRASP (Grief Recovery After Substance Passing). “On Overdose Awareness Day, we are organizing a vigil in Peoria with the theme ‘Because No One is Disposable’ to both remember our loved ones and also demand harm reduction services and compassion instead of punishment and criminalization of people who use drugs.” 
 
Campaign proponents believe that every person in the U.S. should have access to harm reduction services. Harm reduction is a non-coercive approach that empowers people who use drugs to reduce the risk of death and disease. The Support Harm Reduction campaign calls for support and universal access to five specific interventions: Naloxone to reverse opioid overdoses; Drug checking resources such as fentanyl test strips; Safer drug use supplies such as sterile syringes; Overdose prevention centers for supervised use, and; Methadone and buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder. 
 
“We’re proud to join arms with our brothers and sisters across the country and co-host Milwaukee’s Overdose Awareness Day events,” said Tahira Malik, founder of Samad’s House. “We will share with people in our community how to use lifesaving harm reduction services like naloxone and fentanyl test strips and empower them with the tools to save a life. We will also make clear that we need policymakers to support the expansion of these services so that everyone can have access to them.” 
 
The International Overdose Awareness Day national action is part of an award-winning <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/"> “Support Harm Reduction” multimedia campaign </a> that highlights key interventions that are proven to save lives, but remain difficult to access for most people in the United States. A central component of the Support Harm Reduction campaign is an <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/mosaic/*/"> interactive online memorial </a> honoring the lives of people who have died from a drug overdose.
 
 Campaign Background 
 
The Support Harm Reduction campaign launched in February 2022 with <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/pdf_viewer/nyt-ad-full.pdf"> a full-page print ad </a> in The New York Times, featuring 200 people on the front lines of the overdose crisis working in harm reduction. <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/campaign/page/"> Three video ads </a> featuring overdose prevention advocates whose lives were saved by harm reduction, aired 6,000 times in and around Washington, D.C. on a range of channels including CNN, BET, ESPN and on YouTube, Hulu and podcasts garnering 44 million impressions to date. 
 
For more information about the Support Harm Reduction campaign, visit: <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.supportharmreduction.org/"> https://www.supportharmreduction.org/ </a> 
 
 About Vital Strategies 
 
Vital Strategies is a global health organization that believes every person should be protected by a strong public health system. Our overdose prevention program works to strengthen and scale evidence-based, data-driven policies and interventions to create equitable and sustainable reductions in overdose deaths. 
 
Learn more at <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.vitalstrategies.org/programs/overdose-prevention/ "> https://www.vitalstrategies.org/programs/overdose-prevention/ </a> 
 
To find out more, please visit <a class="harm-reduction-link-inline" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" href="https://www.vitalstrategies.org "> www.vitalstrategies.org </a> or Twitter @VitalStrat.