Tennessee’s Drug Paraphernalia Immunity Law — T.C.A. § 40-7-124
This 2015 state law protects Tennesseans from drug paraphernalia charges — but only under one circumstance.
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Drug User Advocacy
Not Accepting People’s Drug Use Leads to Potentially-Deadly Consequences
Oftentimes, as drug users, we’re close to people who don’t support our drug use. When you’re a long-term, often-problematic drug user, as I call it, who in their right mind would support your continuing drug use? Many people confuse “support” with “enabling,” unfortunately, encouraging family members, friends, and acquaintances of addicts to not even associate
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Why Vaping, Chronic Pain Patient, and Harm Reduction Advocates Need to Join Hands
As of now, the phrase “harm reduction” is generally associated with illicit drugs — particularly “hard” drugs like opioids (e.g., heroin) or “radical,” “hardcore” things like injecting drugs. Although not watering down our cause and staying true to long-term, often-problematic drug users like me is something virtually all harm reductionists share, with this idea, we’re
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Joining Forces Between Chronic Pain Patient and Drug User Advocates — a Worthwhile Endeavor
If you go to any chronic pain community on social media, Internet forums, or elsewhere, you’ll quickly find patients — who’re often under-treated, giving them good reason to be upset — who blame the drug-seeking habits of many thousands of opportunistic black market entrepreneurs and irreverent recreational drug users for causing modern American pain management
Let’s Start Using “PWLE” in Place of “People With Lived Experience”
We’re all familiar with “people who use drugs” (PWUD) — a person-first phrasing now-often used in place of once-more-common alternatives like “addicts,” “junkies,” and even “drug users.” I actually prefer “drug user” to PWUD, but that’s not important. In the world of harm reduction, we support things like drug-involved organizations hiring active and former drug
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Current American Medication-Assisted Treatment Conventions Aren’t All Ideal
While medication-assisted treatment (MAT) programs across the country have reduced harm that enrollees otherwise would have experienced without enrolling, some feel that MAT hasn’t been expanded far enough throughout the United States. I can’t help but feel glad it’s legal here in Tennessee, though I also believe our current MAT system is far from ideal
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Where Drug Users’ Unions May Fall Short
People who use drugs, especially their often-problematic counterparts, are given a bad name. Here in the United States, a campaign against drugs and drug users alike has been going strong for some 100 years — if not longer. We’ve been painted as — especially non-White and otherwise-disadvantaged people — “dirty junkies” by much of society
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“People Who Use Drugs”—Slow Your Roll on Person-First Language Like This
In recent years, harm reductionists have pushed to call drug users “people who use drugs” as opposed to “drug abusers,” “substance abusers,” or “drug addicts,” among other labels that hold considerable negative connotations. “People who use drugs,” or PWUD for short, is an example of person-first language, a self-explanatory convention that places people before things
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How Current Tennessee Laws Affect Drug Users
Without laws, uncivil action would permeate society. Laws are essential to maintaining order. Few of us would be willing to live somewhere that doesn’t have laws or an active law enforcement presence. Unfortunately, across the United States, existing laws unfairly treat people who use drugs. This is especially true in Tennessee — take syringe laws
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What Can You Do to Advocate for Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Reform Here in Tennessee?
If you’re reading this, chances have it you probably support harm reduction or drug policy reform, if not both. While you likely wish things were different, there’s only one way to actively accelerate social change other than the inevitable passage of time — advocacy. Google defines “advocacy” as “public support for or recommendation of a
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