Why

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Reflection Questions

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Punishment for overdoses has shown no promise for reducing overdose deaths and has caused unnecessary harm. It in fact encourages people to abandon someone who is overdosing rather than expose themselves to risk of arrest by calling for help.
We call for the decriminalization of drugs both as a way of reducing the harms of the criminal punishment system and empowering people to get the support they need to use safely and prevent overdose.

Do not support, provide information for, or participate in prosecution of overdose criminalization cases
Support colleagues who are penalized for not reporting
Change laws around drug use and overdose criminalization
Join campaigns like #ReframeTheBlame that are led by people who are targeted and directly impacted by the war on drugs

Tougher Criminal Penalties Won’t End Overdose Deaths - The Network for Public Health Law
How Structural Violence, Prohibition, and Stigma have Paralyzed North American Responses to Opioid Overdose - AMA Journal of Ethics
Read “Alternatives We Support” and Why legislation like the “Protect Act” is harmful from sex workers who use drugs, from Urban Survivors Union sex workers group
Read about the work of the Academy of Perinatal Harm Reduction, Harm Reduction Coalition and Drug Policy Alliance

Read Battling an Unjust System: How the War on Drugs Stole My Daughter by Dinah Ortiz
Read Bystanders to Fatal Overdoses Increasingly Becoming Criminal Defendants
Think about the implications of prosecuting such cases on families and communities. What are the negative impacts? What new problems will such prosecutions create?

Check to see whether drug-induced homicide laws exist in your state. Read the Drug Policy Alliance’s resource on Why Drug-Induced Homicide Laws Are Counterproductive and Inhumane

Take part in the #ReframeTheBlame campaign, led by people who are targeted and directly impacted by the war on drugs. Download the toolkit and factsheet.

Read Shira Hassan’s ‘Saving Our Own Lives’ pgs 136-140 on the Risk, Set, and Setting Model for Overdose
- How does Liberatory Harm Reduction think about overdose differently?
- How might you enact these principles in your community?