Harm Reduction: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

I wish the “facts don’t care about your feelings” crowd would really start to listen to the facts rather than their feelings here

As a therapist who has worked with clients recovering from drug addiction, I believe one reason why harm reduction works is because it reduces the stigma and shame drug users experience. Shame will only amplify the use. They're human beings who are hurting. I really wish our government could get that through their thick skulls.

Harm reduction was a life changing experience for me! I'm now 3 years sober after 15 years of opiod addiction.

"Addiction is the opposite of connection." - Louise Vincent Probably the wisest quote about addiction out here.

Thanks to the needle exchange my wife is still alive. We were heroin addicts, iv heroin addicts. They didn't just give needles at the exchange they gave naloxone and taught us how to use it. She ODed 2 times really bad and I had to give her nalxone the second time she was out for 30 mins before I found her. She lived. We got clean shortly after qnd have over 5 years clean now. Because of harm reduction She got out of heroin addiction with her life, and our body's didn't get fucked up thanks to clean needles and being taught how to proply filter and Inject heroin.....

My mom died of an accidental opiate overdose back in the early 2000's. She was a good person, she was in pain 💔. She took care of everyone around her, but she had nobody to take care of her. Addicts are anyone and everyone, chances are you love someone who is, was, or will struggle with addiction. They need help not ridicule.

Thank you. I work in a safe injection site and this is a perfect synopsis of everything we do and stand for. Harm reduction works.

The episode actually made me change my mind on harm reduction centers, thank you for that.

People who oppose harm reduction policies like overdose prevention centers have an ingroup-outgroup mindset where, as soon as you start using drugs, you're a problem to be dealt with rather than a human to feel empathy for.

As a detox nurse, I love that harm reduction is being covered by a man who actually looks at facts. Mr Oliver, bless you.

Thank you so much for doing this episode. I woke up next to my boyfriend’s dead body in 2014 from fentanyl and my twin brother overdosed and died the same way in 2016. I’ve been sober since 2017. The part about disconnecting people from family, community and then freedom was spot on.

Im an addict. I'm lucky that I've been clean for almost 5years now. The thing that kept me getting help earlier was how ashamed I felt. It honestly crippled me. If someone is feeling disconnected from society, heaping shame ontop of the horrors of being in active addiction does nothing to help the person suffering. I was lucky enough to meet the most compassionate, understanding man in the world, and it was kindness that saved me.

I’m a retail pharmacist and one of the first things we need to do is stop requiring that needles be sold only through the pharmacy. For God’s sake, we sell tobacco products at the front register that actively kill you. Why not provide a clean needles that can prevent the spread of disease?

I grew up on the DARE "Just Say No" education. Won my school's essay contest. I then proceeded to use opiates for 12 years. I'm 4 years clean now. I love this piece. And I hope he does another piece on how drug education in this country has failed.

The woman who said "Addiction is the opposite of connection" is right on the money. Shout it from the rooftops. Look up Bruce Alexander's rat park experiments from the 70s. Addiction is inherently lonely, and isolating/disconnecting these people is the exact opposite of what they need. American obsession with incarcerating/punishing everything we dislike about ourselves causes a lot of damage while solving nothing. It's really easy to run out of sympathy for junkies and drunks, since the affliction hurts everyone around the addict while the addict themselves appears blissfully ignorant. Look up what addiction does to your brain if you're interested- it's horrifying. Some people's reward centers have been so completely rewired by addiction that they literally aren't mentally capable of seeing or understanding the problem. Very frustrating people to deal with, but many can be reached and helped if we approach them with empathy rather than ostracizing and punishing them. - an alcoholic in recovery for 10+ years

What Louise Vincent says in that clip is very important - my older cousin is dealing with an addiction, and one of the biggest reasons she's still around today is because whenever things get too rough, my grandparents are willing to give her a place to be away from it all while she recovers. They've always done that sort of thing as well, we're all lucky to have them and a larger and very supportive family around us when things get bad. That sense of connection is definitely keeping people alive.

I was torn on overdose prevention centers for a bit, until I thought about it in a different context. You see, I've had an eating disorder for almost two decades, to the point there's almost no mental aspect of it now--I purge or fast every single day because it's just habit. My digestive tract just doesn't know what to do with food, it's a mess. There are a ton of really dangerous, shitty 'tricks' spread out there, online or off, about how to purge or starve, some of them truly deadly. Do not fucking eat cotton balls, do not mess around with ipecac, do not tie a lifesaver on a string and swallow it, for fuck's sake. These are bad things people learn and try when they're already disordered--no sane, healthy person thinks, "No, yeah, that sounds like a good idea, let's do that." No healthy, happy person resorts to slow suicide for aesthetics (and honestly, it's not even about looking good, I've found so...). If people are already disordered and they're going to purge anyway, I'd rather they have good information and tools to keep them alive and safer. Like, don't brush your teeth right after without rinsing your mouth, preferably with baking soda to neutralize the stomach acid. Your enamel will thank you. Do drink water before and after, preferably the kind with electrolytes added, because you're gonna need those. Basic things to make it easier. Unfortunately, most people think merely mentioning these positive 'tips' is akin to recruiting others into a disorder. That's just not how it works. Again, no one who is well adjusted is going to hear 'don't brush the stomach acid in or your teeth will rot' and think, "This is the thing that I needed to get me started, now I can go puke too!" I assume most normal people think, "...Ew. wtf, just don't do that at all." The thing about eating disorders is, much like drug use, many people are of the mind that, "They're doing it to themselves, they should just eat a sandwich or die." The idea that it's a voluntary, enjoyed pastime is prevalent. In reality, it's usually a disorder that develops as a coping mechanism to what I like to call 'shit life syndrome.' When smokers get lung cancer, doctors don't sneer and say, "Well, you brought this on yourself, guess you should die." No one argues that providing treatment for that cancer encourages young people to start smoking. No one says designated smoking areas are dens of iniquity. When a smoker laments they just can't quit even though they've tried five times already, no one denies them life-saving medical care and arrests them. And if someone laced their cigs with cyanide, they wouldn't criminalize the victims, they'd find and persecute the ones responsible for dirtying the supply. So anyway. Once I reframed what causes people to use drugs and why, and how we don't demonize other deadly substances or the people who use them, it seemed really fucking dumb of me to be hesitant or waffle over it.

Always love starting my week with a joyous bit of depressing information.

Those who want to punish drug users into abstinence are also unfortunately okay with punishing them to death. They associate drug use with immorality, and therefore worthy of imprisonment or death. Either will work just fine.

As an addict for years now in recovery, this is incredibly on point. John Oliver seems to be stating the truth heavier than almost anyone I see on TV these days. It is comedy, but hard reality all the same. Kudos.