I’m Worried About Our Community
I’m worried about my community, I really am. This year (and a few previous ones) has been a hard one for many of us. We’ve lost some important members of the harm reduction community, and in the UK and the US political will at the government level to be proactive in promoting harm reduction interventions has been lacking. I’m worried that for some of us we are close to breaking.
We’ve had ‘wins’ of course, with law changes around cannabis policy around the world finally getting traction, Canada opening more Drug Consumption Rooms, Australia opening it’s second one, and US states seriously discussing opening them over the coming years. I think it’s wins like this that have helped recently to keep us motivated.
But this year I’ve been travelling a lot and speaking to harm reduction activists and advocates in many areas… people who I’ve always considered the most stoic and strong are clearly suffering. I know of a number of people whose mental health has taken a beating lately and that scares me.
This year when Dan Bigg died many of us felt a hole open in our worlds (in Star Wars terms a massive disturbance in ‘the force’). Those people working in the international harm reduction community all owed so much to him, those of us who knew him already knew that. This was clear at the National Harm Reduction Conference in New Orleans where almost every conversation I heard, every interview I was involved with and the bulk of sessions I attended all mentioned him as a core part of our work. That loss has impacts on us all.
It may be because I personally feel near breaking point that I’m noticing my peers situations. I worry that there isn’t enough support for us all. Yes, we support each other when we can, but even that is taking a toll. What will happen if/when the next majorly supportive peer is lost? If so many of us are close to breaking is it going to have a domino effect?
I’ve tried to think of answers (my mindset is always to try and fix things) but I’m at a loss, most of the solutions I think of add more stress for people who are already overloaded. I think all we can do is keep checking on people. Phone, txt, message people you know and make sure they are OK, meet up with each other for a drink. If you don’t hear from someone for a while please check they are not isolating themselves and feeling depressed. We CAN get though this, we have to.
