Narcotica Podcast

Pretty much everyone on the planet is being impacted by Covid-19 right now. Harm reduction services like syringe access programs or supervised consumption sites are no exception. But for some people, these services are not just their lifeline, they’re the only healthcare they receive, period. And when hospitals and doctor’s offices are already stretched thin, it can lead to a lot of potentially harmful situations. At Narcotica, we’re introducing a new miniseries called Hot Spots, where we’re going to call up people in harm reduction across the country and ask them how coronavirus has impacted their services and the people they help. We have three shorter interviews, which equal a full episode. First up, we have a segment from Troy Farah, talking to Thoi at Shot in the Dark in Phoenix about getting creative with syringe access during the pandemic. Then Philly’s Christopher Moraff talks to Matthew Bonn in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia about services offered in Canada and the local drug trade there, and I round out the hour with Sarah Ziegenhorn, the executive director at the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition, about what happens when services suddenly ghost their clients.Follow Sarah Ziegenhorn on Twitter @sarah_ziggy, Matthew Bonn @matthew__bonn and Thoi @bjthoiFollow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us! Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary SiegelCo-producer: Garrett FarahMusic: Glass Boy Image: Pixabay / edit: Troy Farah The post Hot Spots 1 – 3 Arizona, Iowa and Nova Scotia appeared first on Narcotica.

The covid-19 crisis has exposed many weak spots in our culture and the need for radical change. It has revealed which workers are really essential—hint: it’s not executives keeping this late-stage capitalist economy afloat—and that we need to pay these workers a living wage. It has revealed that yes, healthcare is a human right and that contributing to public health is, shockingly, essential to keep everyone healthy. And perhaps most relevant to this show, the covid-19 crisis has demonstrated the utmost importance of supervised consumption sites, or places where people can use drugs under medical supervision. We have numerous episodes in the past on this issue, so check out our archives if you aren’t already familiar: Episode 31, Episode 26 and way back on Episode number 4. We have two guests today: Sterling Johnson, a housing lawyer, who is well known among Philly harm reductionists and has been fighting for a supervised consumption site for years, and Matthew Sheppeck, an organizer with the Philadelphia Tenants Union, a harm reductionist, and addiction outreach specialist that works with homeless drug users in the Kensington region of Philadelphia. We discuss everything from housing as a human right, whether cops should carry naloxone, representation in harm reduction institutions and the importance of supervised consumption spaces, but why they need to reflect the needs of people who use drugs. We also discuss the coronavirus pandemic that is overshadowing everything and how that is changing so much about harm reduction. Follow Sterling Johnson on Twitter @LB_Sterling and Matthew Sheppeck on Instagram @Sheppecksees. Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us! Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary SiegelCo-producer: Garrett FarahMusic: Glass Boy / Pictures of the Floating WorldImage: Wikimedia / edit: Troy FarahOne correction: At the 21:30 mark, Zach incorrectly quoted Gov. Andrew Cuoma. There were 263 positive infections at Rikers, not deaths. We regret the error. The post Episode 42: Supervised Consumption is an Essential Service appeared first on Narcotica.

Ketamine is one of the most versatile drugs on Earth, an amazing anesthetic that can relieve pain without the same risk of respiratory failure as opioids (nothing against them, of course.) Overwhelming evidence also suggests ketamine can rapidly reverse suicidal thoughts, making it a potent treatment for PTSD and treatment-resistant depression.  Last year, a specialized blend of ketamine called esketamine was approved by the FDA to treat depression, the first new major depression drug in more than 30 years, but its use has proven controversial. Meanwhile, dozens of clinics are popping up across North America, offering off-label use of ketamine to treat a wide range of issues. Yet, somehow ketamine is most often conflated with recreational use because it can give an ecstatic, lucid, out-of-body trip known as a dissociative hallucination. According to several surveys, including one published in the journal Consciousness and Cognition, ketamine has the highest semantic similarity to a near-death experience. What is it about this intriguing drug that makes it so popular, both clinically and elsewhere? Our guest is Dr. Erica Zelfand, an integrative and functional medicine physician, who has written about how to get the most of ketamine therapy. You can follow Dr. Erica Zelfand on Facebook and learn more at https://ericazelfand.com/Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us!Shout-out to one of our longest Patreon supporters, Trystereo, a volunteer-run harm reduction collective in New Orleans that has been one of our earliest fans. They’re doing great work in Louisiana offering overdose prevention tools and free safer drug use and sex supplies. We rely on contributors like Trystereo to keep the lights on and free of corporate influence. Find out more at trystereo.orgProducers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary SiegelCo-producer: Garrett FarahMusic: Glass Boy / Pictures of the Floating WorldImage: louise stockton / edit: Troy FarahTwo clarifications we want to make: In the intro, we say that “no other drug will make you feel like you died and left your body.” We mean *compared to ketamine.* So there’s no room for confusion, we obviously weren’t implying ketamine is the only drug that is like a near-death experience, ketamine is simply the closest, and this semantic similarity is based on a number of surveys, which are not necessarily fully reliable as they are self-reported.Second, around the 44:00 mark, we used Compass Pathways as an example of a company that is doing psychedelic research, but didn’t mean to also imply that they are opening ketamine clinics. Many psychedelic research companies, including Mind Medicine Inc, Mindbloom, and Field Trip Health, are going this route, but so far Compass is focused solely on psilocybin. We care deeply about accuracy at Narcotica, so this is just for clarity’s sake. The post Episode 41: What Does It All Ketamine? with Dr. Erica Zelfand appeared first on Narcotica.

In these uncertain times, Narcotica aims to not only give our listeners vital public health information, but also offer a sense of reassurance and community. If you’re following the social distancing guidelines, or working from home, life may feel a little extra lonely right now, and we aim to provide interviews and conversations to keep you company. On Tuesday March 17, co-hosts Troy Farah and Zachary Siegel interviewed Daniel Raymond, policy director at the Harm Reduction Coalition. Drawing from the wisdom and of the harm reduction community, Raymond wrote a beautiful post, “Harm Reduction in the Time of Coronavirus.” This episode covers how harm reduction is an asset during a pandemic, as well as how naloxone and syringe distribution programs are operating, methadone and buprenorphine policies and regulations, and much more. “As we confront COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2, let us remember the gifts of harm reduction.” – Daniel Raymond, Harm Reduction Coalition. @DanielBRaymond Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us! Note: This episode has been slightly updated to have better mixed audio and credits.Links COVID-19 (Coronavirus): How to keep drug use safe during the pandemic https://psychosafety.cf/article/1 Medium Post: https://medium.com/@danielraymond/harm-reduction-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-553e16c76623 Harm Reduction Coalition: Virtual office hours COVID-19 Training Update, Resources, and Virtual Office Hours Covid-19: Guidance for people who use drugs and harm reduction programs   COVID-19 Guidance for People Who Use Drugs and Harm Reduction Programs NIDA: Potential implications for individuals with substance use disorders https://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/noras-blog/2020/03/covid-19-potential-implications-individuals-substance-use-disorders SAMHSA: Guidance for Opioid Treatment Programs https://www.samhsa.gov/medication-assisted-treatment/statutes-regulations-guidelines/covid-19-guidance-otp DEA: Diversion Control Division, Telemedicine, Medications   https://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/coronavirus.html Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel Co-producer: Garrett FarahMusic: Glass Boy / Pictures of the Floating World The post Episode 40: Harm Reduction Amidst Pandemic with Daniel Raymond appeared first on Narcotica.

In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laid out guidelines for primary care doctors prescribing opioids to treat chronic pain. Essentially, these guidelines stated that opioids should not be the first line treatment for pain, and that other methods should be tried first. Which is perfectly sensible. But when it came to dosing and duration, these guidelines — not laws — guidelines, started to become widely misinterpreted. We don’t need to get in the weeds of morphine milligram equivalents here, but what wound up happening across the country is that doctors, medical boards, and even legislators took the guidelines as black letter law. And clearly mistook the intended audience for the guidelines: primary care providers. Not pain management specialists, primary care providers. The one you might go see for a wellness check up or if you have strep throat. Why is all this important? Aren’t prescription opioids, after all, the very substance that ignited a massive wave of overdose deaths across the country? It’s not so simple. Well intended efforts to reduce everyday people’s exposure to high doses and long durations of opioids started to hit the wrong target: patients with chronic, intractable, debilitating pain. And we have an excellent guest, civil rights attorney, writer, and advocate, Kate Nicholson. Kate has been a critical asset for the pain community, who has been speaking up about how policy intended to help is actually causing more harm. She has consulted on several Democratic presidential candidates, including Bernie Sanders, Julian Castro and even Joe Biden. Follow Kate Nicholson on Twitter @speakingabtpain Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us! Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel Co-producer: Garrett FarahMusic: Glass Boy / Garrett Farah / A A AaltoPhoto: U.S. Air Force photo illustration/Tech. Sgt. Mark R. W. Orders-Woempner // Edit Troy Farah The post Episode 39: Pain Patients Are Still Fighting For Their Lives with Kate Nicholson appeared first on Narcotica.

Public officials have been yelling from the rooftops that there’s an opioid epidemic. Yes, an obscene number of people are dying from overdoses, many of which involve opioids. But they’re not quite right. Researchers who really get what’s going on describe what’s happening to the U.S. drug supply over the last few years as a mass poisoning. Were it not for potent fentanyl analogues being sold in heroin markets, many, many lives would be spared.  That’s where the concept of a safe drug supply comes in. Troy and Zach speak with Dr. Mark Tyndall, a professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, and the founder of My Safe Project, a vending machine that dispenses hydromorphone pills, otherwise known as dilaudid. Mark says this program is saving lives. We cut through some of the bullshit arguments about diversion, “enabling” drug use and other pearl-clutching fears, but also talk about safe supply for stimulants and benzos, and how this program is already changing lives.Follow Dr. Mark Tyndall on Twitter @DrMtyndallFollow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us!Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel Co-producer: Garrett FarahMusic: Glass Boy / Garrett FarahPhoto: PXFuel // Edit Troy Farah The post Episode 38: Dead People Don’t Recover — The Importance of Safe Supply with Mark Tyndall appeared first on Narcotica.

It’s difficult to write about drugs without being steeped and schooled in the discourse. Cultural tropes and conventional wisdom dominates the space. Drugs are anthropomorphized as the enemy. People who use drugs are described as manipulative and selfish, unless, of course, they’re “clean.” Often there is little empirical research cited and the same old voices are quoted saying the same old thing. Writers may think they’re being empathetic when really they’re reinforcing stigma, criminalization, and the very narratives that propel dangerous policy in the first place.  At Narcotica, we look out for people who do things differently and like to hear them out. For this episode, co-host Zachary Siegel sits down with culture writer and journalist Kate Knibbs, whose writing about drugs and harm reduction stands out as uniquely humanizing. Approaching drugs and harm reduction from culture angles, Kate’s work tells us about the way live now. Their conversation focuses on two stories Kate wrote while working at The Ringer. First, the bizarre story of a music blogger at Vice who was caught smuggling a lot of cocaine. Then, they shift gears and discuss a piece about supervised consumption sites. Kate and Zach both get deep, and talk about the aftermath of friends and loved ones who overdose, and the impulse to search for accountability and punish people. Follow Kate Knibbs on Twitter and look out for her work at WIRED, where she’s now a staff writer.  Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us!
 Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel Co-producer: Garrett FarahMusic: Glass Boy / Garrett FarahPhoto: Nick YoungsonCC BY-SA 3.0Alpha Stock Images Edit Troy Farah The post Episode 37: Covering Culture and Drugs with Substance with Kate Knibbs appeared first on Narcotica.

An opioid overdose can be a terrifying experience. When too much of a  drug like heroin or fentanyl floods the brain, it can cause your  breathing to stop. Sometimes you wake up, sometimes you don’t. But  there’s a miraculous drug called naloxone or brand name Narcan that can  reverse an opioid overdose and save your life.   Today’s guest is Ryan Marino, an emergency room physician and medical  toxicologist at Cleveland University Hospitals. We discuss moral  hazards about naloxone, one of the most important drugs on the planet,  but also buprenorphine, competitive antagonists for benzos and  stimulants, and dispelling drug myths on social media.  How to Get Naloxone by Zachary Siegel in VICE Also visit: naloxoneforall.org Follow Ryan on Twitter. Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us!
 Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary SiegelCo-producer: Garrett FarahMusic: Glass Boy / Min Y Llan
Photo: Naloxone via Wikipedia / Edit Troy Farah   The post Episode 36: Moral Hazards and Naloxone, A Toxicologist’s Perspective with Ryan Marino appeared first on Narcotica.

Magic mushrooms are having a bit of a moment. Some scientists are bending over backgrounds investing in psilocybin research, which is getting huge accolades from the FDA, while a decriminalization movement is slowly sweeping the nation. At least two towns have made psilocybin arrests the cops’ lowest priority. But how do you prevent a mushroom trip from going sour? In this episode with author Michelle Janikian we enter the world of tripsitting, or watching over someone while they take powerful psychedelic drugs, in this case psilocybin mushrooms. Janikian is the author of the new book, “YOUR PSILOCYBIN MUSHROOM COMPANION: An Informative, Easy-to-Use Guide to Understanding Magic Mushrooms.” **As with all our episodes, this is not medical or legal advice, it’s just a brief intro to the topic, please do your own homework and be safe. Follow Michelle on Twitter: https://twitter.com/m00shian Order “Your Psilocybin Companion” here: https://ulyssespress.com/books/your-psilocybin-mushroom-companion/ Some excerpts from the book:https://doubleblindmag.com/how-to-trip-sit/ https://realitysandwich.com/325410/challenging-trips/ https://www.playboy.com/read/bliss-your-heart Extra resources: https://zendoproject.org/training/ https://www.decriminalizenature.org/ Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us!
 Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel 
Music: Glass Boy / Min Y Llan
Photo: Psilocybe tampanensis via Wikipedia / Edit Troy Farah   The post Episode 35: Holding Space — The Values of Trip Sitting with Michelle Janikian appeared first on Narcotica.

President Richard Nixon ignited the War on Drugs in 1971 by declaring drugs “public enemy No. 1.” Over the ensuing decades, the U.S. has turned the Drug War into a vital feature of its vast empire, exporting a drug policy of militant enforcement and harsh criminalization in Mexico, Latin America, South America, and beyond. Exactly how this war plays out––its victims, villains, and profiteers––is the subject of journalist Antony Lowenstein’s vivid new book, “Pills, Powder, and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs.” On Today’s episode, co-hosts Troy Farah and Zachary Siegel interview Lowenstein about what he saw on his journey chronicling the Drug War in countries like the Philippines, Australia, Honduras, and the U.S., among elsewhere. You can follow Antony Lowenstein on Twitter and buy his book here. Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us!Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel Co-Producer: Aaron Ferguson Music: Glass Boy / MonplaisirPhoto: Linnaea Mallette / Edit Troy Farah The post Episode 34: “Inside the Bloody War on Drugs” with Antony Lowenstein appeared first on Narcotica.