Saturday, November 24, 2012

North Carolina and Atlanta Video Overdose.


Here again this information is so important I have to added in this blog so that
others become aware of the problems that opiate dependent persons have.
Dignity is a lot more important than you can imagine. 

Stigma, discrimination and outright bigotry exist in the treatment of alcoholics
and substance use individuals.  We just take it for granted, even these individuals
believe that they warrant these behavior toward them. I suppose that as slaves did
several centuries ago. Humans can get use to and survive all kinds of meager
conditions.  I once heard Judge Judy make one of the most cruelest statement
regarding syringe exchange programs in the rim of they deserve to die.

I think that syringe exchange as well as harm reduction treatment or work with
the patients where they are at, rather than a forceful and combatitive method
demanding that recovery is only ecceptable if the patient becomes totally
abstinence.







New NCHRC Video: Harm Reductionists Talk about Opiate Overdose Mortality Prevention

The video can be found at: https://vimeo.com/51111302

About the Video:
Jeff McDowell, Executive Director of the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (recently featured on PBS's "Frontline"), discusses Naloxone and shares a vivid story of a street overdose that he reversed and how some users are more concerned about the threat of legal action against them than about saving other's lives. Corey Davis, Staff Attorney for the Network for Public Health Law, talks about Naloxone access, the typical opiate user and "911 Good Samaritan" laws. Whitney Englander, Government Relations Manager for Harm Reduction Coalition, highlights the urgency of prescription medication overdose prevention in light of CDC data and emphasizes the need for Good Sam laws. Allan Clear, Executive Director of Harm Reduction Coalition, discusses the overdose problem both in general and in comparison to the AIDS epidemic and also shares about his personal history of knowing people who have died from overdoses.
Most of this material was recorded at the Southern Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Network conference September 6-8, 2012, in Atlanta, GA.

A second overdose prevention video, focusing on North Carolina users and family members, is coming soon.

Produced, shot and edited by Hadley Gustafson for North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition.

About the Videographer:
Hadley Gustafson is an award-winning video activist with a 2011 MA in multimedia journalism (documentary storytelling + motion graphics) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She believes documentary video is a powerful tool in the fight for human rights and social and environmental justice. Before going to grad school, she operated her own graphic design business for eight years. Hadley has worked for NCHRC as a videographer and outreach worker for 2 years, producing numerous video advocacy projects on sex work violence prevention and condom use, syringe exchange, overdose prevention, harm reduction, HIV and drug policy in the South.