Thread by @MyHarmReduction

Hey harm reduction friends and drug policy nerds, let's share our #DrugPolicyResolutions for 2022 by using this hashtag!

I'll go first-

I will not affirm the "hard" vs "soft," "plant" vs "powder," and "legal" vs "illegal" drug binaries in my activism in 2022.

I will not call the current crisis an "opioid" crisis, since it is actually driven by:

- a toxic drug supply;
- overdose deaths;
- polysubstance use;
- prohibition;
- systemic racism, classism, and ableism.

#DrugPolicyResolutions

I will continue to bridge the research-policy divide in drug policy by highlighting that:

- all drug research is political (for better or for worse);
- people who use drugs should be centered in research;
- researchers cannot hide in ivory towers.

#DrugPolicyResolutions

I will continue to challenge the media and other experts who uncritically uplift police and law enforcement interpretations of drug use, drug effects, and drug risks without acknowledging their vested interest in prohibition.

#DrugPolicyResolutions #ChangingTheNarrative

I will continue to unapologetically advocate for harm reduction- the only fundamentally PRO-LIFE approach to helping people who use drugs in a world that would rather them "hit bottom" than get another chance.

#DrugPolicyResolutions

I will continue to remind people that harm reduction and the drug war are fundamentally incompatible.

#DrugPolicyResolutions

I will keep reminding people that the drug war affects you even if you've never used an illegal drug:
- routine workplace drug testing;
- tax dollars towards 1.5 million US arrests per year;
- cops & drug-sniffing dogs at schools, etc.

#DrugPolicyResolutions

I will continue to acknowledge that pleasure and fun are just as valid reasons to use drugs as:
- self-medication,
- productivity,
- focus,
- enlightenment,
- spiritual growth,
- pain management,
- experimentation.

#DrugPolicyResolutions

I will unapologetically call nicotine vaping and e-cigarettes "tobacco harm reduction."

Because it is.

#DrugPolicyResolutions

I will not affirm the idea that "recovery" is the only valid end goal to harm reduction, or that recovery necessarily requires long-term sustained abstinence from all mood-altering substances.

#DrugPolicyResolutions

+ #DrugPolicyResolutions

I will not conflate dependence and addiction. They are not the same thing.

https://twitter.com/MyHarmReduction/status/1478044844476014592?s=20

+#DrugPolicyResolutions

I will not use the term "pill mills" to describe pain clinics. It specifically stigmatizes the treatment of pain with opioids as though pharmacies and hospitals don't dispense pills every day. That's the point.