Hear Me Out: Harm Reduction Saves Lives

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Slate Podcasts

Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… preventing the preventable. At best, the rate of epidemic of drug overdose deaths in this country is slowing — but by many metrics and in many jurisdictions, the situation remains as dire as ever. Which begs the question: what tactics will work to prevent these deaths, if nothing has yet? Laura Guzman, Executive Director of the National Harm Reduction Coalition, joins us to say that harm reduction strategies like clean needles, clean pipes, and Narcan distribution are the way forward… because criminalizing drug use isn’t. RESOURCES FOR PREVENTING OVERDOSES: Access guidance and emergency mental health support via Overdose Lifeline. Find Naloxone near you here. You may be able to receive Naloxone through the mail; check here. Find harm reduction centers near you here. If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected] Podcast production by Maura Currie You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Hear Me Out, I'm your host Celeste Headley.
0:05.1	It may feel like the War on Drugs was a long time ago.
0:07.7	In a way it was, but today's landscape of substance use, both legal and elicit, is very
0:13.0	much still shaped by it.
0:15.2	And our country's narratives about drug use are still driven by these ideas of abstinence
0:20.2	and morality.
0:21.2	Evidently, that hasn't worked.
0:23.3	And as overdose deaths are on the rise, it's worth asking what does work and what might
0:28.8	help stem the tide.
0:31.0	We have to actually work harder to make sure that all those basic needs are given to our
0:36.7	people so they're not dying or they're not on the streets without any hope.
0:41.6	Laura Guzman, Executive Director of the National Harm Reduction Coalition, joins us.
0:46.4	Stay with us.
0:52.1	What do I do?
0:53.1	What do I do?
0:54.6	What do I say?
0:55.8	What do I say?
0:57.9	In the McMillan Online Community, we know what it's like to have cancer.
1:03.2	Because we have it too.
1:05.3	So whatever you're thinking, whatever you're feeling, whatever you need to ask about cancer,
1:11.4	whatever the time of day or night, we'll do whatever it takes to help you.
1:17.6	To join us, search McMillan Online Community.
	...

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