Hey my people, thank you for all your support so far! I have been noticing a lot of new subscribers to my Substack. I have been putting a lot more time and energy into making posts and engaging on here. As always, you can support by contributing on my Open Collective or signing up for a paid Substack subscription. You can also use my links to directly CashApp or Venmo funds. If you’re international and need PayPal, I can provide this on request.
Once again, I am phasing out much use of Instagram, especially for communication. Please join me on my Discord, or join my Signal Channel for ad hoc updates and privileged information, and this Telegram Channel if you casually want to keep up with updates without joining my community. You can hit me up on Signal (@pmkg.87) / Telegram (@mohawkkellye) as well. Please stop hitting me up on Instagram when it’s not in relation to content/comments I’ve posted. Meta is literally the ops.
Remedy Alliance Drug Technician Training in Minneapolis
I had the opportunity to be sponsored to join some newer drug checking technicians at Remedy Alliance’s Drug Technician Training in Minneapolis. It was a nice refresher and skill building exercise to be trained again, but with a different organization that has been doing community drug checking specifically since before I started (2019). Got to test my chops with analyzing some real world samples from Chicago Recovery Alliance’s stash. Each region, and sometimes state-to-state, the opioid supply varies widely, so they were good exercises for identifying substances without having intimate knowledge of the local supply (which makes it easier, obviously). Met some really cool folks, too. Always grateful to meet others doing the work, especially when they are interested in supporting my projects.
Rebel Analytics Harm Reduction Shop
I’ve been holding out on discussing this all of March because it’s still technically not ready yet, but it will be this month, so I want to start to pique some interest. I will have branded reagent test kits and strips available—the same manufacturers folks have always trusted with products I’ve promoted/supported over the years.
What makes this drug checking company different? The simple fact that you’re supporting me and my harm reduction projects, and I can rely less on crowdfunding and other fundraising efforts and focus more on the work. I will be giving specialized discounts so that marginalized individuals with higher drug checking needs can access testing resources and services at greatly reduced rates. Currently, these types of product discounts are only available from other organizations for harm reduction organizations, public health agencies, etc.—not individuals, and for the US there’s very limited access to drug checking services for the public in general. This is where the mail-based service will come into play very soon.
Drug Checking Pilot
As mentioned last month, I will be working on community drug checking efforts. Mail-based services will be available to select areas/groups of people and included with buying products from my shop. I am also looking to collaborate with local community spaces to offer drop off services. There will be more details about this later!
MAPS Psychedelic Science Conference… Again? Ugh. 😩
I’ve been asked to speak on a panel again at Psychedelic Science in June called “Stronger Together: How Communities Can Build Systems of Care for Safety and Resilience”. Many may not know that I had quite a terrible experience at this conference in 2023. The conference didn’t feel like a gathering of people that I align with, so presenting to a room full of my peers who already know me on a side stage that people can very optionally skip out on felt like a waste of my time, energy, and money. I experienced multiple racist/bigoted altercations (including with the Denver PD… AGAIN) and had the misfortune of hearing people talk shit about PWUD like they’re lepers, talking down on pharmaceutical medications that many people benefit from, etc.
It is an unpaid gig and of course I come out of pocket on many expenses. Last time I had to pass up on an opportunity to speak to homeless youth about drugs—PAID. I was extremely upset that I was locked into this contract and there was nothing I could do to make both happen. This year, there’s a bit more accommodation, but only $40 for meal support (for 4 days???) and there’s no travel reimbursement, which is a rather large expense coming from New York to Denver when you don’t have consistent income and are on government assistance. I have 3 days to sign and confirm my participation whenever the Presenter Agreement is emailed to me. This is honestly not enough time to make a sound decision about something happening all the way out in June, days after I am scheduled to be onsite at Dripping Festival.
Last time, if anyone were to break the contract they would have to pay back the expenses (flight, lodging, etc.). I really do want to show up, because I was asked by someone I used to work with at DanceSafe who still supports my work and thinks highly of me, but I have to think very carefully about this. I do not want to come out of pocket to be there at all. That’s non-negotiable. Not only do not have money to go to unpaid conferences (especially being in psychedelic spaces where my community and I will be disrespected), but I will be in surgery recovery beginning April 15th which will render me incapable of working for a few weeks. My funds are tight.
I may crowdfund to try to cover some of my expenses, but I’d only go for 2 days (the day before, and the day of the panel, leaving the same night if possible). But again, I have limited time to sign the contract and it’s a legally binding agreement I’ll be locked into. Maybe there’s a workaround where I can participate on the panel without being on the contract, so I reached out to the panel moderator if I could do this instead. I will raise funds to cover my own expenses so I’m not beholden to MAPS…
Recent Drug Checking Results:
None! I haven’t done that much testing this month, and the things I did test checked out just fine. I just got around to sending off a few samples to secondary testing at UNC and Kykeon, so I won’t know the results for a couple of weeks. Reminder that the Rebel Analytics drug checking livestreams will be ending by April 19th. I will also be archiving a lot of videos.
Shoutout to my very sweet and extremely hot partner that has been holding it down with me for 8 months now. I don’t share my personal life much so I know bringing this up rn is random af, but they deserve lots of praise and nice things.
That’s a wrap. 🫡