The Age of Drug Normalization

IT’S ALL GOOD? –

June 11, 2023 – In addition to crystal methamphetamine, Blanchard said she also used heroin and “lots of different things under the sun.” A trans woman, she said she began using drugs while engaging in sex work after graduating from Vassar College in 2018. She added heroin to her intake when the pandemic temporarily cut off her meth supply.

After becoming dependent on heroin, Blanchard said she sought a prescription for buprenorphine, an opioid-replacement drug used to ease cravings. “I have my own battle with the city of New York to get a simple prescription for this lifesaving medication,” she said.

Like other activists at VOCAL, and throughout America’s nationwide drug policy reform movement, Blanchard’s ultimate goal is, in her words, to “decriminalize all drugs” and create a “safe supply”—guaranteed access to state-regulated, toxin-free drugs. She envisions a time when drugs, like alcohol, are legal, widely available and free from stigma.

“A century ago, people could go to their doctor and get the heroin they needed,” she said, referring to an era before the onset of federal narcotics regulation in 1914. “There’s a danger in suggesting this is a radical, progressive leap.”

It’s not as radical as it used to be.