Liquid Handcuffs debuted at the Bay Area book festival in Berkeley, CA #freemethadone

"The narrative of a vaping crisis in schools is driving truly harmful [policies] all over the US," writes @chancethegardener.bsky.social, despite massive drop in teen vaping since 2019. "Though I do not know why this huge gap between the evidence & schools’ perceptions exists, I have some ideas."

"I spend half the visit searching the internet for the list of medications each insurance plan covers. There is barely time left to form a relationship and hear our patients out." - Chloe Chaudhury, primary care physician, Harlem Tell your electeds to #PassNYHealth: www.bit.ly/Action4NYHA

The risk is not only to harm reduction in Belgium, advocates say, but of "building pressure for an EU-wide flavor ban" as the EU Tobacco Products Directive is revised. The EU suffers around 700,000 smoking-related deaths per year. @kiransidhu41.bsky.social reports:

“Repeals carry a different weight than reforms," says one Argentine expert. "They are an explicit admission that a previous policy failed.” "Prohibition has not worked anywhere it has been tried." @kiransidhu41.bsky.social reports:

"Oklahoma has just begun allowing prisoners to purchase safer nicotine products—vapes and pouches—at commissary," reports @helenredmond.bsky.social. "This change is of enormous importance ... It is about the right to health for prisoners who use nicotine."

“Eliminating take-home doses could make it impossible for someone to continue care." Rep. Houchin's bill would undo modest but hard-fought gains in methadone access as the overdose crisis continues, reports @helenredmond.bsky.social:

“It most likely is an increase in mental flexibility and learning, combined with a perspective-shifting subjective experience” -coauthor of study that found psilocybin+CBT participants quit smoking at a much higher rate than NRT+CBT group. By @helenredmond.bsky.social:

At my kid’s track meet and getting ready to get mightily pissed off between events. Thx @helenredmond.bsky.social

Obama is unveiling an $850 million shrine to himself - funded by Wall Street tycoons, a health insurer & tech moguls that got rich during his tenure as millions were foreclosed on & as this billionaire class now fleeces America. Presidential shrines are monuments to oligarchy - pass it on👇

Even people WITH insurance are delaying urgently necessary care, enduring excruciating pain, even though waiting greatly increases the risk of more serious complications. #PassNYHealth to free us from financial fear! Have you delayed care for fear of costs? Share your story: bit.ly/MedStoryMonday

www.propertyistheft.org/events/2wdgi... I'll be speaking with Dr. Betty Kolod a leading member of Physicians for a National Health Program & a person who takes methadone. Please join us at The P. I. T. in BK. Books available for sale at a discount.

filtermag.org/methadone-ac... @aatod.bsky.social @yalemedicine.bsky.social

peoplesforum.org/events/liqui... Book launch! The methadone surveillance state, the racist roots of methadone, why we need healthcare as a human right & harm reduction @harmreduction.org @aatod.bsky.social @nyusilver.bsky.social @drugpolicy.org @pnhpnymetro.bsky.social @asamorg.bsky.social

Book goes on sale on March 3 #freemethadone #abolishOTPs

@helenredmond.bsky.social wrote a book about methadone! Self-recommending! I just pre-ordered and you should too!

Join us for our monthly free Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) office hours, offered in Spanish and English! #HarmReduction #TobaccoHarmReduction #HarmReductionSavesLives #THR #SmokingCessation #HarmReductionIsHealthCare #Vaping #Tobacco #HolisticCare #HealthCareIsAHumanRight #SupportNotStigma

🧵 #HarmReduction is evidence-based. Folks' negative "feelings" about this life-saving health care do not change that. “Harm reduction and housing-first models are not ideological experiments; they are among the most rigorously studied and empirically supported... bit.ly/HHSUnderminesCare

🧵NHRC is excited to offer monthly #TobaccoHarmReduction ( #THR) Office Hours sessions in English & Spanish, starting this month! English sessions will be hosted the 3rd Tuesday of each month @ 3 p.m. ET starting Feb. 17, & Spanish sessions will be hosted the 4th Tuesday of each month @ 3 p.m. ET...

The book & audiobook will be published next month and is ready for pre-order now #freemethadone #abolishOTPs

NEW DATA: This briefing provides updates to key data from our flagship report, The Global State of Harm Reduction. The update also summarises funding and policy developments since the 2024 report.

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790228... "This is not just a book - it's a reckoning, exposing how too many methadone clinics have failed their patients in the service of the imperatives of market medicine, racial capitalism, and the carceral state." –Samuel Kelton Roberts PREORDER NOW!

Florida officials are now actively suspending the medical marijuana registrations of patients and caregivers with certain drug-related charges, reports Tom Angell. It's currently unclear if the new law will impact only current cases or also prior records:

“There are people who light up rooms, but Louise set them on fire.” Harm reductionists pay tribute to the inspirational activism of Louise Vincent, a leader in the drug-user rights movement and Filter contributor, who died this month. By @helenredmond.bsky.social:

"Must-read whistle-blower" details the cruelty and exploition of rehabs and sober living homes, giving "understanding of how treatment fails people—not the other way around," writes @helenredmond.bsky.social. She asks author Shoshana Walter for her takeaways:

It’s a monumental moment for The Lever. We just published our first book: Master Plan — The Hidden Plot to Legalize Corruption in America. It exposes the never-before-told story of how corporate power rewrote the rules of democracy. 📘 Out now → www.levernews.com/get-the-book...

I wrote about why socialist mayoral candidates should not be moderating on the police or apologizing for telling the truth: police *are* a threat to public safety. www.currentaffairs.org/news/now-is-...

"We will blow you out of existence ... Each boat we sink carries drugs that would kill more than 25,000 Americans." Amid Trump's ludicrous claims as his Caribbean killings continue, the US is further destabilizing the region, reports @tganeva.bsky.social:

Lenacapavir, approved by the FDA in June, requires only two shots a year. US insurers don't cover it, but access will soon increase abroad.

I wrote about why "talk to your doctor" is one of the most awful things politicians and other can say at a time when so many Americans can't even afford healthcare. open.substack.com/pub/selectal...

I wrote about how the new autism treatment approval by the FDA amounts to a real-time experiment on US children selectall.substack.com/p/new-fda-ap...

"Over time, the agency gotten a bit more creative with its approach to scheduling fentanyl analogs under the Controlled Substances Act."

🎧LEVER TIME: Robert Reich recounts his experience working with presidents & seeing the Dem Party’s capitulation to corporate power — which he says helped create conditions for Trump’s rise. He discusses how to fight corruption & save the country. www.levernews.com/robert-reich...

Just 17 percent of the discarded cigarette packs the researchers collected had the NYC tax stamp. "This is another version of the so-called 'balloon effect' familiar to veterans of the drug war," writes @helenredmond.bsky.social. Meanwhile New York is arresting people over vapes:

“They say they want to protect Americans from drugs, but their policies don’t match these words,” says Hanna Sharif-Kazemi as the administration talks up more drug-war strikes. A new tracker helps quantify the damage to people who use drugs of domestic cuts, reports @tganeva.bsky.social:

We are deeply saddened by the passing of Louise Vincent. A fearless harm reduction leader, her voice carried truth, compassion and hope for people who use drugs.  Watch her powerful words here:

“This is for the pursuit of better mental health and well-being for millions.” Current European momentum includes a new psilocybin access program in Germany, the UK easing psychedelic research barriers and impending Czech legalization of psilocybin therapy, reports Sarah Sinclair:

Little bit of tranquility from the Cape

"With drone strikes looking like a real possibility, more fentanyl cooks will be constantly on the move, using short-term labs and makeshift equipment. It's not hard to guess whether that will end the supply or make it more chaotic."

Two doctors urge a reevaluation of India's 2019 vape ban, amid high rates of smoking- and tobacco-related death. "They have courageously taken this position despite the All India Institute of Medical Sciences' unwavering support for the ban," writes @helenredmond.bsky.social:

📊 A 2022 study in The Lancet found that universal coverage could prevent 68,000 (!!) deaths each year in the U.S. Medicare for All would save lives by making care accessible before it’s too late. #MedicareForAll #HealthEquity #LivesOverProfits

"Tobacco bans made prison gambling all but vanish—for a while. Post-COVID, certain games are making a comeback."

“We have slums here. We’re getting rid of them.” As troops deploy on DC streets, false claims about violent crime in the capital are Trump's pretext for a sweeping assault on unhoused residents, reports Alexander Lekhtman:

Demand persists and many retailers still sell disposable vapes—reflecting what advocates say was always an ill-conceived ban. "Introducing policies without working out the tangible impacts screams of lip service," one consumer tells @kiransidhu41.bsky.social:

"The immense power of the Juul-triggered teen-vaping frenzy had a host of catastrophic knock-on effects," writes Helen Redmond, "creating an Orwellian world of disinformation and doublethink."

filtermag.org/seeking-meth... I think we know how stressful it is for people seeking methadone....#freemethadone

filtermag.org/methadone-pi... “When we handed them the bottle of methadone with a label on it, which looked like a drug-store bottle of anything, some of the patients would cry.” #freemethadone #abolishOTPs @mountsinainyc.bsky.social @vitalstrategies.org