Harm Reduction Specialist and Peer Counselor, David Levine, and I discuss the social and political context of the war on drugs in the United States and how drug laws and policies disproportionately affect those who are disenfranchised and most marginalized. David works on the ground helping people who have overdosed on opioids and discusses what true harm reduction means when it comes to mental health and substance use. He also describes gatekeeping, inequity, and hypocrisy when it comes to research and legalization of medicines, and how stigma around drugs often creates more harm than the drugs themselves. In this episode: 3 critical parts to practicing harm reduction in it’s truest form what harm reduction looks like on the ground - with case examples current life saving harm reduction technologies that stop lethal overdose the war on drugs as systemic oppression of marginalized groups drug positivity and how we can mitigate risk gatekeeping, profit hoarding, and hypocrisy in what we classify and sell as ‘medicine’ the opioid epidemic in the US drug research, patents, FDA approval and the legalization of schedule 1 drugs in equitable and inequitable ways David Levine, JD is a drug warrior and harm reductionist. Identifying as a person who uses drugs and committed to fighting against War on Drugs, David has worked professionally in Harm Reduction since 2014 in a multitude of settings. He currently works two jobs on the front lines helping people affected by dangers inherent to a black market drug supply in the Bronx through street outreach and engaging overdose survivors in ERs. Email: [email protected] Institute for the Development of Human Arts: www.IDHA-nyc.org Links & Research: MAPS: https://maps.org/about-maps/ Andrew Tatarsky: https://www.centerforoptimalliving.com/ Harm Reduction Coalition - https://harmreduction.org/      Next Distro: https://nextdistro.org/  Alliance NYC: https://alliance.nyc/leshrc FDA approvals and fee process: “The FDA collected $29 million in fees in 1993, the year after Congress passed the Prescription Drug User Fee Act for the first time. The fees rose to $908 million in 2018. That year, industry fees amounted to about 80% of the money spent on FDA employee salaries for drug reviews, according to the study.” https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/14/796227083/fda-approves-drugs-faster-than-ever-but-relies-on-weaker-evidence-researchers-fi ”Half of new drug approvals only based on one clinical trial” : https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2758605?guestAccessKey=6c172781-0a0e-4e36-8c5c-a51962ecc2f7 “If you get the message, hang up the phone. For psychedelic drugs are simply instruments, like microscopes, telescopes, and telephones. The biologist does not sit with eye permanently glued to the microscope, he goes away and works on what he has seen.” - Alan Watts Disclaimer: The DEPTH Work Podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Any information on this podcast in no way to be construed or substituted as psychological counseling, psychotherapy, mental health counseling, or any other type of therapy or medical advice.