Harm Reduction: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

"Facts don't care about your feelings......unless they're your facts then we turn into babies"

Wow. I don't typically disagree with John Oliver, but I can't get on board with paying for places for people to do illegal drugs. To me, it's like having AA meetings in a bar.

I recently completed Narcan training with local harm reduction specialists. The teacher recommended that we watch this clip.

People who use are no less entitled to safety and help. As the teacher said, “they are ‘people’, first..”, not their [substance] use.

If we actually sat down and thought this through with logic, and not let emotions muck it up, we would see that OPCs are one of the most important tools in helping our fellow humans.

Please don’t isolate or punish individuals who use, it is not only wrong, but extremely dangerous.

Personally, it’s not my job to judge what others do, but it is my job to love without stigma and be helpful where possible.

Several states offer free harm reduction programs. Seriously consider this because you have no idea how close to home this can occur - and if you’re prepared you can save lives.

Listen, im a 21 year addict who, yes, was addicted to oxycontin by a doctor who then was indicted , and let harm reduction is a godsend that we need to implement much more.
Im texas, its fuckn illegal to possess NARCAN in a border state. Im a bostonian and its a fuckn mess up here, with a 3 block area with 1000 addicts in temts..aids would run RAMPANT if they didnt have free needle kits.

Saying "the best way to prevent overdoses from Heroin is to have people stop doing Heroin" is like selling someone suffering from depression "just stop being sad"

lmaooo i was not ready for them to be doing coke in that retro drug PSA

Oh yeah right on the park benches, lunch time in front of the kids biking. Perfect spot

The Awful Truth About Mental Illness “Avoiding an Economic Lobotomy”
Most mental Illness is really about mixing drugs during a world with massive political and religious secrecy. It’s more like a lawsuit for victims of trust. It can’t be helped until the entire world is equal in all things. The mental health program exists because they know the entire world cannot own the keys to religion, science and engineering, and political secrecy or be born into inherited wealth. It’s the nature of their techniques in media and economics. One can either get an economic lobotomy or sit at home with pills.

I am pleased to be from Vancouver Canada. We were the first city in North America to open a supervised injection site. I am a recovering addict who has used the center. I can tell you that they have multiple overdoses every day and yet, since 2003 when they opened, Insite (the injection site) has had 0 deaths. Given that they have multiple overdoses every day and have been around for 21 years that is an amazing statistic. That should tell you everything you need to know. I am so grateful to live in Canada where we don’t demonize addiction nearly as much as you in the United States do. We still have a way to go but We don’t lock people up in prison here simply for having an addiction and the sooner Americans get on board with that way of thinking the more lives they will save. In fact, you can’t even be arrested for having drug paraphernalia in Canada. If it’s not Drugs, it’s not illegal to carry. I know some of you really conservative people are reading this right now thinking “ these places just encourage people to use drugs“ but John Oliver is very correct in that people do not go to these facilities to experiment. The people who use safe injection are people who are going to use drugs either way so we might as well keep them alive. John is also right that so many of these people just want to demonize addicts and be angry at them instead of trying to help them. Stop looking at addiction through the lens of morality and realize that it is a Legitimate illness That should be treated, not punished. And by the way, I went to detox by referral from the safe injection site and I’ve been living a better life thanks to them helping me. The people. Out there with your narrowminded opinions to do your research before just making assumptions. I Welcome comments and questions and would be happy to respond. Ask away… or debate.

whenever i watch segments like these, it makes me all the more confident in my belief that everything wrong in the world is the fault of ronald reagan (or really, his advisors who called most of the shots)

I was so fucking happy learning we have these in minneapolis! I don't do drugs so I don't need to go to them, but others do, who deserve to live.

Harm reduction benefits everyone not just drug users. I have to inject my medicine but needles are expensive so I go to a needle exchange where I get free clean needles and I can safely dispose of my used ones.

My life is made so much easier by it!

One of the most important things I've learned about addiction is that no one can force an addict to become clean; they have to want to do it and will proceed when they are ready. With that reality, harm reduction is one of the best ways to protect addicts until they enter treatment. Additionally, harm reduction is also very beneficial as it helps eliminate aspects of addiction that are hazardous to non drug users

saved billie this morning spiritually >.>

what is it?

day 6 at dawn for my enemies

Why wont you cover child genital mutilation john?!

Jesus!! You cover ever other weird thing but you will not protect baby boys.

You need about 3 people you start by saying the age at which those ppl started using drugs / then what happened/ age they quit doing drugs and so on to each of the 3 people , for a don’t do drugs commercial

‼For those that are curious, Naloxone/Narcan became over-the-counter in March 2023. I know these videos don't usually have a good outcome, even years after they air, but this time we got it right.

Thank you ! I survived deadly Japanese political substances and found that harm reduction also helps those who are sober and set boundaries...

For some reason I was worried that this was going to be an anti-harm-reduction episode. I have seen a lot of John's episodes where he rightly attacks the subject. I'm so glad to see that, as seems to always be the case, he is ... as the Brits say "spot on."

I'm from SI, and I am not a fan of Nicole meliotakis. I've noticed all these people who are opposed to harm reduction centers don't say anything about alcoholics who go to bars, and yet the concept is similar. You're in an enclosed space and there are people making sure you don't overdo it. People are going to drink and not everyone is ready to admit they have a problem. If someone hits Rock bottom, that's on them. A drugs legality does not necessarily mean it's any more or less life-ruining.

Powdered death sounds like a new line of donuts at Dunkin

Watching this from Canada where we have Naloxone literally everywhere is CRAZY. Like you guys have to argue about saving lives??? I can get free Naloxone at any pharmacy, grocery store, clinic etc

Wait….why can’t you pray it away?!

Not enough is said about 'Suboxone'...Several European nations, Aus, NZ have abandoned methadone in favour of Suboxone.
AS a former addict, with 12 years without opioids and a hip replacement in the middle, Suboxone works. Insist your doctor makes Suboxone his business and yours... at the very least, explain their plan for exit from any program... its important to know, all programs are funded one way or another, street help clinics too, you are their customer, without u they are fucked too.

so happy to see my old mayor Svante in this 🥲. i’ve lost many friends in the city of Ithaca to ODs, harm reduction centers would have saved their lives

are you sure it wasn't Raid the way his legs were waving in the air

I can't stop thinking that the spoon in their graphic is FULL of white powder.

That's too much, man...

I ate asparagus every other day on probation for 2 years😂

How can you snot Coca Cola? (Joke)

Drug counter action can be lethal.

Lud
Skills. America. WTF? You’re like when Roland walked into Lud in the Dark Tower Series. Click. Click. What is the nature of rebels. They don’t fall in line. They need lessons in authority. Failure to grasp comes to mind. Reality. Get there. Lud. You’re Dopamine. Get Serotonin.

Awww Jesus....Narcan isn't like a wall going up. Narcan is like a liquid that can fill a glass, but can also quickly replace a liquid that's already in a glass. If you have morphine in your glasses, the naloxone will empty that glass and fill it up with itself. But the morphine can't empty the glass of naloxone.

This isn't funny at All!

There is a drug rehabilitation centre on my way to work. One of the addicts physically attacked me out of the blue quite recently. After this incident I must say it would have been nice if at least you would have acknowledged the downsides these institutions can have with one or two sentences. Downplaying the real-life threats these houses can pose is not helping I think. Instead we should acknowledge this problem and work out solutions. I am a real human being with a lot of very close encounters with these attempts at helping. In fact there are several of these houses in my area. Some cause no incidents at all. Some are problematic. After all this and 30 years of experience with drug addicts in my area I would oppose any new construction of these houses in my neighbourhood. I feel that a good number of them are not well thought through. With shoddy management.
For me every discussion about these houses would have to start with the acknowledgment of the physical threat they can pose for those living nearby. 😕

It's quite offensive that people are so concerned about overdoses but give no fucks about the person who uses drugs. If you do drugs everyone you know and who claim to love you will turn their back on you and you'll be ostracized and forced to live on the fringe of society. I've used drugs most of my adult life and I can tell you that people treat you with contempt, whether you have wronged them or not. The judgment you receive is over the top and only pushes the person further away. Fact is doing drugs doesnt make you a piece of shit. Every person who uses drugs is someone's son, daughter, sister or brother. We don't change because of drug use we change because of your ignorance and fear. It's about individual liberty and personal responsibility. I don't give a fuck that people shove big macs down their throat until they weigh 400 pounds. I don't care if you fuck your husband's friend. It's none of my business just like it's none of your goddamn business if I do drugs or not.

I live in Scotland UK and until watching this i never knew how hard it was for people to get access to clean needles especial Narcan and Naloxone . we can get them from all needle exchanges and most towns cities etc have at least 1 .

You have to love the fact that we have police officers who break into a full-blown panic attack and pass out over information received via Dick Wolf

If you take away all someone's reasons to live, it shouldn't be surprising when there are casualties.

Crash-O-Meter “The Venus Alternator”
Maybe, if women sold more than a lifetime of extra chores and an enormous potential to get into a car wreck along the way. Some men are even worse in this regard. Evil. The social sacrifice on the altar. May lead to death or worse. Leave it to dumb people. Hmmmm. Wicker Man. Hmmmmm. Many are even aware of what they do, as if it were written in the stars. Ew. It’s inherent in the structure of the umbilical cord. As above, so below…
Just what the world needs! Another phallic symbol rising to the sky! Why don’t they look for scientific evidence that the feminine is inherently a destructive slave driver to the masculine, so they can cover it up and use it to rule over society?
-Alsin Pinler

In-crowd men suck!
Keep the grimoire scribbles and the Subway punch card.
See the complexity at the end of the tunnel!

Yeah this hasn’t aged well, with blue states and cities admitting harm reduction made things worse and shifting to an enforcement model

Three years ago Tonight with John Oliver.

It feels like the places that let users take them safely, removes all the negative effects that is used to scare people away from drugs. Which is of course not true, there is so much more bad stuff happening. They just want Drug users to vanish from the public view.

Dragnet 📺 show set the stage for exaggeration & overreaction. The misinformation about all drugs caused generations to ignore very true information.