DRUGS BAD PROGRESS UPDATE

With the year coming to a close, I thought I will update on the work I have being doing behind the scenes. I have reached out to multiple charities, government bodies and individuals who are known in the harm reduction community. I reached out to get an idea of everyone's thoughts and what I can do to change and shift that narrative and hopefully show people how to be safe.

It's been some months, I will list some of the people / bodies I've spoken to and their responses. Hopefully no issue from the parties, me listing their responses or my experiences with them, if so please do get in touch.

Late post because I was lost skiing in the alps.

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teessidecannabisclub.co.uk - Replied then went silent.

reagent-tests.uk - Reached out asking to do a sort of interview and Guy Jones was very nice to give his insight and some advice.

Dazed - No reply.

West Midlands Police - Spoke to a communication officer, was told never going to happen due to current laws. I questioned their stance and approach to addicts who are clearly vulnerable and have been told some of the schemes they have for offenders to get back into a normal life. The idea I had was a drug amnesty box for testing purposes and I got told it's not the police's role to do that which i do agree. It's funny because they have done amnesty bins where people can put knives and other weapons and drop it in a box, and they're let go no questions asked, I don't get the logic behind this, bizarre to me the weapon idea is completely fine and justifiable but doing it with small quantities of drugs.

Birmingham city council - after sending a brief email asking about the idea of public drug testing and what would be needed from DRUGS BAD to make a public soup kitchen and this was the response I got. While I agree with the email response as they just generally disregarded the rest of my email.

Good afternoon

Further to your email below, unfortunately this not something for the police. Admin.EH@birmingham.gov.uk

While I haven't done anything of substance yet due to the nature and legality surrounding the issue, we hope to become an open platform promoting harm reduction and policy changes where they need to be made to save lives and curb the increase in drug addiction.

Hopefully more comes out of this in 2024, but I will not make any empty promises, for anyone interested please do contact me.

Happy new year and be safe in 2024 ☃️