Last nights event was a success in that the seats were full, a handful of people commented that their perspective had been changed, and some went home with a new life saving skill and tool…a new group of people are carrying Naloxone as a result of this event.

Changing the narrative around drug use is the essence of this film, highlighting what we do as harm reductionist to keep our fellow humans alive. The topic is compassion. Yes, we need laws to change, structural violence to seize, and we need you to charge forward in activating and voting for those changes. We also need funding to be shifted away from power over, and into the hands of the people who are doing this life saving work. But we won’t get there until we are able to show compassion and admit that this is not a moral issue. We are not good or bad, we simply are. We ARE beautiful people, with many histories and many versions of the present.

At this event, and in most places where I state what is the one thing that people can do…no matter what get curious, stay curious. If you do nothing else, take time to know us. The work, the lives, the stories, the success’, the tough stuff, the why, the importance. We are all of value. If you do nothing else, change the thoughts you have when you see us. What you tell your brain, you will train, and it will become your actions (and your words).

It is long past due to change a system of care and politics that hasn’t been working for decades, look past your judgment, and recognize that the knowledge is in the people.

Thank you to everyone who attended the event both virtually and in person, thank you KIXE for bringing this to Redding CA, thank you to my fellow panelists for what you do, thank you to Colin Askey for making this film, and especially thank you to the people at OPS and everyone out there doing the work of Harm Reduction.