injection drug use

Episode 70: How Testosterone Bans Criminalize the Body with Adryan Corcione

April 4, 2022 Narcotica Episodes 00:52:35 0 Comments

Imagine banning a chemical that we all make in our bodies. But that’s exactly where drug war logic takes us and why testosterone is Schedule III on the Controlled Substances Act, alongside ketamine and buprenorphine. Testosterone is painted as some dangerous substance that must be locked up. These outlandish fears led to restrictive laws which lead to criminalization and barriers to access—essentially criminalizing identity and the very bodies we inhabit. But bans on testosterone, ostensibly to stop athletes from boosting their competitive abilities, can have real world impacts, especially for gender variant people, especially transmasculine people.

Narcotica co-hosts Zachary Siegel and Troy Farah talk with Adryan Corcione about the climate of testosterone, why this hormone became so scrutinized (and how Joe Biden was part of that), and how syringe access programs have stepped in to help folks get the recognition and healthcare they deserve.

Follow Adryan Corcione on Twitter and read their piece in Filter Magazine here.

A few resources:
https://www.transformationsproject.org/legislation – anti trans legislation tracker by state
https://www.them.us/story/anti-lgbtq-bills-2022-explained-trans-sports-laws-youth-healthcare-mandated-reporter – recent roundup of anti-trans bills
https://translifeline.org/ – trans lifeline, peer hot line for trans people experiencing crisis
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/ – 24/7 LGBTQ+ hotline for young LGBTQ+ people
https://reconcilearkansas.org/ – Arkansas specific group to support trans/gnc youth
https://www.transtexas.org/ – transgender education education network of texss
https://tranzmission.org/ – trans rights org in western NC

Also, reach out to trans-specific groups local to you.

If you liked this episode, here are others you might enjoy:
Episode 62: Policing Pleasure — The Intersection of Sex Work and Drug Use with Tamika Spellman and Caty Simon
Episode 33: Party and Play—An Intro to Chemsex with David Stuart
Episode 60: Perinatal Panic—Drugs, Pregnancy and Stigma with Ria Tsinas, Joelle Puccio and Erika Goyer
Episode 24: How To Get Abortion Pills Feat. Lynn Paltrow and Francine Coeytaux

Follow Narcotica on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and support us on Patreon. Help keep this podcast ad-free! Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us! Rate us! And thanks for your support!

Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel
Co-producer: Garrett Farah
Music: Glass Boy / Paddington Bear
Intro voice: Jenny Schaye

Episode 67: Methadone in the Time of Covid with Danielle Russell

February 8, 2022 Narcotica Episodes, Opioids, Overdose Crisis 00:58:10 0 Comments

Harm reduction programs like syringe access, supervised consumption or even just handing out condoms on the street, can be some of the only access to healthcare some people encounter. Definitely not all, but some people who use drugs routinely shun going to the doctor—not because they don’t care about their health, but because our for-profit healthcare system treats almost everyone who uses an illicit substance like complete shit. And people who use drugs have been treated like pariahs long before the covid pandemic, but things got way worse once the virus came to town.

Previously on Narcotica, co-host Chris Moraff did an episode all about how doctors need to work harder to rebuild the patient-trust relationship. And many medical professionals are doing that work, which makes such a huge difference. It’s hard to understate how valuable it can be to receive nonjudgmental medical care that doesn’t hinge on absolute abstinence.

That episode, number 65, which we encourage you to listen to after this one, came from the perspective of two amazing doctors, Ashish Thakrar and Ben Cocchiario. However, on this episode, we want to talk to someone from the other side of the aisle to get a different viewpoint from someone with lived experience in this area.

Why would you go to a healthcare provider for an infection or injury if you’re going to be lectured about your drug use, even if it has nothing to do with why you’re there? Or you might be forced to hand over your urine or have your possessions rifled through by a nurse. Even for people that don’t use illegal substances, our healthcare system is a nightmare to try and navigate. It only gets worse if you happen to self-medicate or enjoy chemicals that aren’t sanctioned by the FDA.

Narcotica co-host Troy Farah speaks with Danielle Russell of Phoenix, Arizona, who is currently a justice and social inquiry PhD student at Arizona State University. She studies how the criminalization of substances used for personal pleasure has become a key issue and tool for social control, contributing to the ongoing legacy of racialized criminalization and mass incarceration in the U.S. Having personally experienced many of the harms that impact people who use illicit drugs, she is passionate about mutual aid and working to change the structures that impose harms on the bodies of drug users. Her research interests are oriented towards community-based participatory research.

Follow Danielle on Twitter @DopefiendPhD and you can read the study she co-authored here:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33461838/

If you liked this episode, here are others you might enjoy:
Episode 65: Restoring Trust in Doctors Amidst The Overdose Crisis with Dr. Ben Cocchiaro and Dr. Ashish Thakrar
Episode 48: Moms And Methadone with Elizabeth Brico
Episode 56: Drug Use During Disaster with Aaron Ferguson

Follow Narcotica on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and support us on Patreon. Help keep this podcast ad-free! Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us! Rate us! And thanks for your support!

Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel
Co-producer: Garrett Farah / Troy Farah
Music: Glass Boy / Holly Mangler
Intro voice: Jenny Schaye
Image: Noun Project // edit: Troy Farah

Episode 43: Russian Roulette—Life, Death and Getting High in Putin’s Backyard

June 9, 2020 Narcotica Episodes 00:36:37 0 Comments

The last place you’d want to be dependent on drugs, besides the Philippines, North Korea or the United States, is probably Russia. To give just one example, the Motherland has long banned the use of medication-assisted treatment, such as buprenorphine or methadone, which has made recovery next to impossible for many users. 

Narcotica co-host Christopher Moraff takes a deep dive into Russian drug culture with Aleksey Lakhov, the deputy director of the charitable foundation Humanitarian Action in St. Petersburg. They discuss the culture of naloxone, synthetic drug use, heroin trends, the death penalty, legality of MAT and much more. Here’s the paper about HIV prevention mentioned in the interview and you can read more on this topic in Filter Magazine.

Follow Aleksey Lakhov on Twitter @Alexei_L

Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us!

Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel
Co-producer: Garrett Farah
Music: Glass Boy / Poddington Bear
Image: Flickr / edit: Troy Farah

Episode 36: Moral Hazards and Naloxone, A Toxicologist’s Perspective with Ryan Marino

February 13, 2020 Narcotica Episodes 0:49:30 0 Comments

An opioid overdose can be a terrifying experience. When too much of a  drug like heroin or fentanyl floods the brain, it can cause your  breathing to stop. Sometimes you wake up, sometimes you don’t. But  there’s a miraculous drug called naloxone or brand name Narcan that can  reverse an opioid overdose and save your life.  

Today’s guest is Ryan Marino, an emergency room physician and medical  toxicologist at Cleveland University Hospitals. We discuss moral  hazards about naloxone, one of the most important drugs on the planet,  but also buprenorphine, competitive antagonists for benzos and  stimulants, and dispelling drug myths on social media. 

How to Get Naloxone by Zachary Siegel in VICE

Also visit: naloxoneforall.org

Follow Ryan on Twitter.

Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher and more.
Tell your friends about us!


Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel
Co-producer: Garrett Farah
Music: Glass Boy / Min Y Llan

Photo: Naloxone via Wikipedia / Edit Troy Farah  

Episode 21: Ethically Documenting Drug Use Activism with Nigel Brunsdon

June 13, 2019 Narcotica Episodes 00:41:22 0 Comments

Sometimes, you’ll be reading a great piece on the drug overdose crisis that is just ruined by a crappy stock image of a gigantic syringe and a mountain of what is obviously flour or someone nodding out on the sidewalk. On this episode, Narcotica explores what accurate, tactful drug imagery should look like.

The team speaks with Nigel Brunsdon, the official/unofficial photographer of the modern day harm reduction movement, who is joining us via from the UK. He has shadowed the Chicago Recovery Alliance, Harm Reduction International, and many others on the front lines of the so-called drug war. His photos of the workers, advocates, people who use drugs, and the academics are loaded with grief, emotion, hope, and solidarity. He explains balancing privilege, relationships and representation of impacted communities through drug war photojournalism.

Follow Nigel on his website nigelbrunsdon.com and check out harmreductionphilosophy.com for more on how harm reduction works as an ideology.

Follow Narcotica on Facebook, Twitter and support us on Patreon. Your support is appreciated!

We talk a lot about this image that we used from Nigel for Episode 3, memorializing harm reduction activist Dan Bigg. Here it is for reference:


Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel
Co-Producer: Aaron Ferguson
Music: Glass Boy and Aaron Ferguson
Image Credit: Nigel Brunsdon / Edit by Troy Farah

Episode 4: Supervised Consumption Breaks Rod Rosenstein’s Brain

September 16, 2018 Narcotica Episodes 00:39:21 0 Comments

In response to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s outrageous supervised consumption op-ed in the New York Times, the Narcotica team speaks with Laura Thomas, of the Drug Policy Alliance, who broke down the obstacles harm reduction workers face in opening a site in the United States. Thomas, who is deputy state director at DPA, has been championing supervised consumption sites for over a decade, because she knows what the data says: SCS save lives.

But how long until we see a facility in the U.S.? We discuss the status of many projects in Washington, New York, and California, and what kind of fight we can expect from the Department of Justice.

You can follow Laura on Twitter @LThomas and learn more about the Drug Policy Alliance at drugpolicy.org.

Follow Narcotica on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and support us on Patreon. Help keep this podcast ad-free! Your support is appreciated! We’re on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher and more. Tell your friends about us! Rate us! And thanks for your support!

If you liked this episode, here are others you might enjoy:
Episode 26: Housing As Harm Reduction
Episode 42: Supervised Consumption is an Essential Service
Episode 20: The Pitfalls of Mainstream Harm Reduction with Eliza Wheeler

Producers: Christopher Moraff, Troy Farah, Zachary Siegel
Music: Glass Boy
Intro voice: Jenny Schaye
Image: Composite by Troy Farah