Articles

What has Portugal learned since they implemented the decriminalization of all drugs in 2001? How did the country go from having the highest rate of overdose fatalities in the E.U. to the second lowest? How did they go from having the highest rate of injection drug-transmitted HIV infections in the E.U. to the lowest rate of new HIV infections from intravenous drug use? What has been the impact of Portugal’s dramatic decline (60 percent) of people arrested and referred to criminal court for drug law violations? What can Orange County learn from Portugal’s accomplishments in a moment when the current Attorney General is seeking to roll back gains made by drug policy reformers in reducing the consequent harms of the drug war?

Words matter. They determine how we understand and perceive our world. They carry power, for good and for ill. Stigma is driven by the pejorative words, the labels, that are used to describe us. This is not a matter of political correctness. Until we are seen as people, until we are provided the same respect and dignity as everyone else, we will continue to die. We have to change the cultural perception of those with an opioid disorder.

Denise Cullen, of BNM, joins Perri Peltz on SiriusXM radio to discuss the opiate epidemic and the development of BNM as a supportive community for those affected by overdose and the stigma of substance use.

Harm reduction is a set of practical strategies that reduce negative consequences of drug use, incorporating a spectrum of strategies from safer use, to managed use to abstinence. Harm reduction strategies meet drug users “where they’re at,” addressing conditions of use along with the use itself.

Grief, in all the forms it takes; stages as some call them, is mostly seen as a negative, painful thing. A process we go through with ups and downs. Grief is loss and loss is part of life. We have all lost things throughout our lives, big things, little things, important things and so on.