Section 3
dignity for All
One of the largest concerns when it comes to harm reduction, addressing stigma, to work in support of dignity and respect for people who use drugs in our communities: to see the breadth of internal stigma and pushback which can make these efforts difficult or isolating. Addressing community pushback with compassion and understanding can help bridge the gap of knowledge and empathy, and strengthen our community altogether.
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Create space for grief, embrace our communities and relatives in their pain. Try to learn where their pushback is rooted. What is their primal fear? What are the conditions that might lead to them feeling afraid? What are some of the stigmas, misconceptions, or misplaced anger that they may be navigating? Sometimes, people are hurting and just want to be heard in their pain. When people’s grief, anger, or stigma comes out in defensiveness, giving our genuine care and interest in what they’re saying may help them to feel empowered in getting their deeper needs met, and can help transform their perspective. People who are notoriously “anti-harm reduction” are often those who have lost loved ones and weren’t given the space or tools to process their grief in a healthy way, which can lead to complex emotions and pushback.
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Find a value that people care about as the connection and bridge to how non-coercive, non-judgmental care supports that shared value. Common ground between your experiences can help “put a face” to the principles we believe in – that these aren’t just concepts or words on a piece of paper, but real life!
“If you care about immigration, you might not realize that you already care about decriminalizing drug use; a weed bust is something that will get someone deported.”
“Indigenous sovereignty is something that has been affected for hundreds of years by anti-drug laws targeted specifically against Native people.”
“We both believe Native people deserve healing and access to culture. Many Native people who are using drugs or alcohol are in need of those supports the most. This is one way to help support people at a time when they are at their deepest need.”
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Have nuanced, open dialogues with our people who are unsure, skeptical, or flat-out against harm reduction models. Seemingly opposing views, truths, and opinions can be true at the same time. As people, we can sometimes struggle to hold multiple worldviews because this is our passion, our livelihood, and our survival at stake. We can hold people’s humanity while also holding their responsibility. We can hold both love and harm together – and when we do so, we find that this is where real healing happens.
It’s important to remember that our relatives who are adamant against the non-coercive, non-abstinence based tools, principles, and practices of addressing substance use are often coming from a place of grief, pain, or loss. They may have lost a loved one to an overdose, or have otherwise been harmed by their own, someone else’s, or the whole community’s drug use. Oftentimes, this pain and grief is exploited and taken advantage of by people and movements that are pushing for forced treatment, incarceration, and ostracization as a way of “dealing with” people who use drugs.
As people who believe in harm reductionist, non-coercive care, we feel extremely passionate and dedicated to the cause that we’ve spent so much time learning and thinking about, and sometimes it feels like “we know better.” But that does not always leave room for someone’s grief who may not understand how certain non-abstinence based practices could have helped their loved one, and that can lead them to be more vulnerable and susceptible to those who are pushing an abstinence-only model. We must create space for the grief and acknowledge the pain and harm that is caused by drug use, otherwise we will continue to lose and isolate our relatives.