People who seem to care a lot about mental health, housing, disability justice, abolition, etc., but who don't want to talk about drug use. Why?

The only people who talk about the perspective of people who use drugs are those of us who either are or love people who use drugs. We do not get the same solidarity from other movements that we show to them. We are not considered an important part of any political base.

Almost every issue I can think of is impacted by our drug policies, but a majority of folks on the left act like people who use drugs don't exist. When they do acknowledge, it's with an ironic condescension, given they are the ones who have gaps in their understanding.

How are you going to talk about the housing crisis and not acknowledge that people are kicked out or prohibited from supportive housing services on the basis of drug use?

How are you going to talk about disability justice and not acknowledge that people who use drugs are overwhelmingly neurodivergent?

How are you going to talk about incarceration and not acknowledge that over half of people incarcerated have a substance use disorder in addition to other mental illness? The largest "mental health provider" in the Northeast is Rikers Island.

How are you going to talk about education and not acknowledge that people are denied scholarships on the basis of drug possession?

How are you going to talk about SV and not acknowledge that people receive no education about the boundary blurring capacities of many drugs and how to stay safe?

How are you going to talk about immigration and not acknowledge the impact of the drug war on the violence people are escaping? Or that marijuana can get you deported?

How are you going to talk about healthcare access without talking about the ways pain patients are denied care because they are seen as "drug-seeking"? The extra visits people have to pay for in order to access their controlled medications?

How are you going to talk about family stability and ACEs without talking about the ways a positive drug test can have a family ripped apart?

How many of you work on campaigns related to any of these issues but don't have a drug users union or caucus, don't actively consult with people with these lived experiences, actively discourage them from participating in your spaces?

Tell me why decriminalizing all drugs is not an obvious and central part of your organizing.

When people who use drugs are discouraged from seeking care for a health issue or when they are survivors of violence bc they will not be taken seriously or they will be punished themselves, why is this not a core concern of #medtwitter?

Why do most injection drug users know more about sepsis and woundcare for abscesses than many first responders?

Why are people who are overamping still being taken to rooms with lots of stimulation and then pathologized or criminalized for their agitation?

Why the FUCK is a substance use disorder, characterized by an inability to stop seeking a substance despite negative consequences, not a qualifying diagnosis for a prescription for that substance? Over 70,000 people have died of overdoses this year bc of an unsafe drug supply.

You are patting yourselves on the back because you went to a naloxone training, when the naloxone has become so critical because drug use is criminalized! We have normalized overdoses but we still haven't normalized drug users.

I'm so angry. I have been learning and engaging with drug policy for TEN years. And nothing has changed. I know you can hear us. Those of you who I know from healthcare and other organizing spaces, I can *feel you* ignoring us.

Put decriminalizing drugs on your agenda. Now.

Only four councilmembers voted against the building of new jails in NYC for decarceral reasons and one of them voted in favor of harsher criminal penalties for fentanyl.

I'm just. So confused.

And don't act like overdose prevention sites (which we don't even have) are good enough. People who use drugs deserve not to be criminalized. People who use drugs deserve quality healthcare. Why is surveillance the best you can offer?

Syringe exchanges lead to a decrease in the transmission of infectious diseases (a cdc goal) as well as cleaner, safer parks + streets, so why are NIMBY arguments treated as credible? Why isn't there funding for culturally competent education about this for every neighborhood?

Most problematic drug use plays a complex role in a person's psyche and is related to other mental health issues, so why isn't every addiction-focused provider certified in or partnering with practitioners of harm reduction psychotherapy?

Why is there a cap on the number of patients a provider can give buprenorphine?

Why isn't there an effort to prioritize the legacy market in legal MJ sales and priority given to expungement of criminal records and immediate release of people incarcerated for MJ in legal states?

Why does the tax on MJ sales in some states fund THE POLICE?

When will there be reparations for Black and Indigenous survivors of the drug war? In the form of direct cash payments!

Why are people with felony drug charges not able to open legal MJ businesses or psychedelic clinics or even work in healthcare more generally?

People who work on drug policy and harm reduction already know and do work on these things. I'm talking about everybody else. Where are you?

I just don't understand why this can't be addressed during a single legislative session, why it's not even on the agenda.