Last week, Puerto Rico hosted hundreds of harm reduction practitioners and policy experts to discuss their work. Alliance was proudly represented by Outreach Specialist Shantae Owens, who has been a very powerful speaker due to his lived experience. He is also an active member of Voices of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL-NY) with whom he lead a presentation on the temporary federal scheduling of fentanyl as a Schedule 1 drug.
“The federal government's saying this would be the way to get so-called ‘drug kingpins’, but what we're seeing is it's affecting low-level dealers. Most of these dealers also use their own drugs. It's primarily punishing people who use drugs, many of them don’t even know there’s fentanyl in their supply to begin with,” said Shantae, who noted that the harsher penalties involved with class-wide Schedule 1 drugs make people afraid to call 911 when they’re with someone experiencing an overdose.
The three day conference brought together hundreds of people from across the U.S. to learn how others are doing the work, network, and learn policy as well as street-level findings.