Networks of drug users and harm reductionists have been repeatedly devastated as overdose deaths surge amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that community is grieving the death, on September 7, of Jesse Harvey, a harm reduction leader in Maine.
Jesse founded Journey House Recovery in December 2016 and the Church of Safe Injection (CoSI), a grassroots distributor of harm reduction supplies, in 2018. He advocated for expanding syringe service programs and introducing safe consumption sites. He wrote a short article for Filter last year, condemning Maine legislators rejection of SCS.
Members of the harm reduction movement are mourning his passing and recognizing his important contributions. In a statement posted to Facebook announcing his death, Journey House honored his vision and incredible enthusiasm that brought the organization into existence in 2016. His legacy will live on at our recovery residences and in the greater recovery community, they wrote.
Jesse worked so hard and was so genuine in every minute of that work, wrote author and journalist Travis Lupick. He only wanted to help people. He was idealistic, in the best way possible.
It has been reported that police believe Jesses death to have been from an overdose; that has yet to be confirmed, however.
In his work, Jesse was serious, dedicated and passionate. In his life, he was this big crazy, nutty goofball that just always loved making jokes and making people laugh, Kari Morissette, executive director of the Church of Safe Injection, told thePortland Press-Herald. Its a huge loss for the harm reduction community as a whole. Everybody knew of Jesse. He changed a lot of peoples perceptions on a lot of things and molded the way the people approach harm reduction in this area.
***
As a fellow 20-something drug user dedicated to popularizing harm reduction and building community power, I considered Jesse a role model. I first met him in 2019 while I was passing through Portland, Maine. We knew of each other through the online grapevine, and soas so many millennials doI hit him up on a whim to hang out while a friend and I were in town.
He eagerly accepted and invited us to join him on a ride. He had to drop off some safer injection gear to a Church member. We met at his house, the entrance crowded with boxes of syringes and naloxonea sign of good company. Loading up his beloved red Honda, we drove around handing out supplies, chatting with folks. We stopped by one of the Journey House locations, where he introduced us to the residents and we played with a dog roaming the house. The hospitality and openness expressed by Jesse felt exceptional.
The author (left), her friend (center), and Jesse doing harm reduction supply distribution in April 2019.
Im not going to lie: I had been second-guessing our impromptu meet-up just before we arrived. I was wary if how Jesse would regard myself and my friend: a trans woman and a gender-nonconforming dyke. Its no secret that certain sects of harm reduction can feel like a bit of a boys club, whether that means heterosexual male drug users are being prioritized or that men are listened to over the rest of us. Nonprofit harm reductions chronic neglect or exploitation of sex workers feels exemplary of this atmosphere of male chauvinism.
But Jesse was different. It wasnt simply that he asked for our pronounswhich was great! Rather, he was genuinely interested in the lives and experiences of queer and trans people who use drugs, and how he could better show up for us. Half a year later, after I had co-founded the now-defunct trans harm reduction collective Do It Safe, Heaux! (DISH)which was partially inspired by his Churchwe would DM on Instagram about how his work could better reach queer and trans people who use drugs. Hed offer me his own advice for my organizing work, like the best wholesalers for heat-resistant meth pipes. I cant say I know any other cisgender, heterosexual harm reductionist who was so ready to make time to build a collaborative relationship with a trans woman.
***
The last nine months of his life had been rough. Jesse allegedly faced rights violations while held at a a notorious jail-based civil commitment program in Massachusetts, as I reported in January. It was only a few weeks since being released in February that Jesse, like the rest of us, had to face the COVID-19 crisis.
He began using again in March soon after a bad interaction with a cop while distributing harm reduction supplies amid the lockdown. The police officer told Jesse, as well as Kari Morisette, who recently recounted this to the Bangor Daily News, that their distribution efforts were not a public health necessity.
Thats despite the reports of increasing overdose deaths in the state since the pandemic exploded. Even before the effects of COVID-19 were felt by Maine drug users in spring 2020, many among them were already fatally overdosing in higher numbers of statistical significance during this years first quarter, compared to the final three months of 2019.
Jesse had told me that the erasure of his work, as one of the few local harm reduction providers to keep going in the early days of COVID-19, was not limited to the cop. There is currently a City of Portland Public Health Department narrative out that they are the only ones providing harm reduction services, when in fact they are providing almost none, Jesse wrote to me in a March 27 email. They shut down for COVID19 and are only now suddenly reopening in a very fake and tokenizing way. And they pretty much with one tweet tried to erase the work that our church was doing the whole time they were closed.
On a single Sunday in late March, his rag-tag group served almost 100 people. He told me he and his Church members distributed 1,220 syringes, 47 naloxone kits, 40 crack pipes, 106 meth pipes and over 50 fentanyl test strips. If we hadnt been there, the 97 people we served would have still used drugs, just with contaminated syringes instead and/or without a fentanyl test strip or lifesaving naloxone, he wrote.
Jesse seemed to be increasingly disillusioned and frustrated by the inadequate institutional attempts to support people who use drugs. In mid-July, he forwarded me his provocative response to an email he received from a Maine Department of Corrections case manager, inquiring about an incarcerated client looking to join Journey House when released that month. Jesse was no longer working for Journey House, he informed the worker, going on to express a sense of pessimism about what established systems could do for people who use drugs.
If your client ever relapses, its probably best that he DOES NOT GO to a hospital to seek treatment or the state might fuck him too, Jesse responded, seemingly referring to his civil commitment experience earlier that year. And God forbid hes black, then theyd just shoot him dead.
There was something surreal about the email thread: a carceral bureaucrat just looking to shuffle a body out of a cage and into a home, only to be met by Jesse expounding the violence of the war on drug users in graphic metaphors. He wantedand neededthe world to be different, and he did so much to make that happen. Jesse embodied the harm reduction tenet described by writer Tracy Heltonin a tweet mourning Harveys death: [W]e do the things that need to be done- whether they are comfortable, feasible, legal, or even funded.
Yet his world remained recalcitrant.
All this pain, psychosis, misery, suicide attempts, relapse, OD, etc and for what? All to fatten up the sacrosanct prison industrial complex that is so fiendishly thirsty for the dripping blood and the severed and dismembered limbs of societys lower classes and anybody who isnt white, wrote Jesse in the July 16 email. Its classicide and white supremacist genocide unfolding right before us daily. And we just watch it and go about our days, and the bureaucrats making $80k/yr just schedule a meeting to schedule another meeting.
It shouldnt take the loss of life to compel the state and society to work in support of drug users health, power and autonomy. Drug users have been envisioning the paths forward for years: from safe consumption spaces to a safe supply, from housing for all to drug legalization. Even with mass death, only crumbs have been delivered to activists by politicians and bureaucrats, like the expansion of take-home methadone, and some wins are even being rolled back, as seen with the recent closure of a busy safe consumption site in Canada.
I wasnt close with Jesse, but from our working relationship, I know he will not rest in peace until all drug users are safe, healthy and have the resources to self-determine their lives.
CoSI is raising funds for Jesse Harveys family and his September 19 candlelight vigil. Donations can be made to their Venmo: @churchofsafeinjection.
Link:
Rest in Power, Jesse Harvey - Filter
- Chasing the Scream | The First and Last Days of the War on ... - January 24th, 2017 [January 24th, 2017]
- The president of the Philippines admits his war on drugs has been dirty - The Economist - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- PDEA: Army to play support role in war on drugs - ABS-CBN News - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Ruto camps in Mombasa, says war on drugs intensified - Daily Nation - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Words won't win war on drugs - The West Australian - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Letter: The failed 'war on drugs' divides country - Rockford Register Star - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Congressmen: Let's take a new look at the war on drugs - AZCentral.com - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- War on drugs not war vs poor: Cayetano - ABS-CBN News - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- President Duterte Threatens to Extend Drug War and Kill Korean ... - Newsweek - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Magufuli adds weight to war on drugs - The Herald - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Philippines: Duterte must end his "war on drugs" - Amnesty International - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Seares: Branding the war on drugs | SunStar - Sun.Star - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Opposition against President Duterte's war on drugs mounting: UN investigator - WION - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- WANG: War on Drugs requires smarter, more realistic approach - RU Daily Targum - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Shahbal to introduce tough laws to curb drug abuse - Daily Nation - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Trump Watch: Emboldened cops and border patrol agents, a more 'ruthless' war on drugs, and threats against the ... - Washington Post - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Palma: Church leaders will continue to oppose bloody war on drugs ... - Inquirer.net - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- In Trump's 'ruthless' vow, experts see a return to the days of the drug war - Washington Post - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- DERMODY: War on Drugs requires more than 'quick-fix' - RU Daily Targum - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Rights agency calls for sober talk in war on drugs - Daily Nation - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Mexico Should Ask Trump to Pay For The Drug War - AlterNet - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- Trump on Drug War: 'We're Going to be Ruthless ... We Have No Choice' - CNSNews.com - February 11th, 2017 [February 11th, 2017]
- Why war on drugs fires up our soft political underbelly - The Standard (press release) - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- President Duterte Changes and Defends Philippine Drug War - Voice of America - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- War on drugs has left us with a latticework of crime - The Boston Globe - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Increasing opposition in Philippines to war on drugs: UN official - Reuters - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Unnecessary fighting south of the border: Mexico should ask Trump to pay for the drug war - Salon - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Trump Goes Full Nixon on Law-and-Order Executive Orders, Vows 'Ruthless' War on Drugs and Crime - AlterNet - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Death of a businessman: How the Philippines drugs war was slowed - Reuters - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- President Trump Signs Executive Order Ramping Up The War On ... - TheFix.com - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Sh170m heroin recovered in war on drugs at Coast - The Standard (press release) - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- Duterte militarises the war on drugs in the Philippines - World Socialist Web Site - February 13th, 2017 [February 13th, 2017]
- After war on drugs, it's 'war vs illegal gambling' for PNP - Rappler - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- President Trump Just Renewed the War on Drugs - MERRY JANE - MERRY JANE - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- Duterte targets Philippine children in bid to widen drug war - Reuters - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Is Ending The War On Drugs A Panacea? - Modern Times Magazine - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Scott Pendleton: Civil forfeiture is an important tool in fighting the war on drugs - Tulsa World - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Donald Trump Vows 'Ruthless' War on Drugs and Crime - The Daily Chronic - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Simonson: The war on drugs - La Crosse Tribune - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- History of the War on Drugs - About.com News & Issues - February 15th, 2017 [February 15th, 2017]
- Trump goes full Nixon on law-and-order, vows ruthless war on drugs and crime - Salon - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Go whole hog in war on drug lords - The Standard (press release) - February 16th, 2017 [February 16th, 2017]
- Duterte's 'war on drugs' in the Philippines - Deutsche Welle - February 17th, 2017 [February 17th, 2017]
- A man of God in the Philippines is helping document a bloody war on drugs - Columbia Journalism Review - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Reckoning with the Addict and the U.S. War on Drugs - OUPblog (blog) - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Duterte calls for stronger AFP support in war on drugs, terror - Inquirer.net - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- In Manila, Catholics March Against War on Drugs Tactics - Voice of America - February 18th, 2017 [February 18th, 2017]
- Losing the war on drugs - The Review - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Why we can't seem to end the War on Drugs | TheHill - The Hill (blog) - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Philippine's Rodrigo Duterte urged to drop charges against leading war on drugs critic - Telegraph.co.uk - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- HRW on war on drugs: PH needs 'international intervention' - Rappler - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Napolcom: Police need to regroup, rethink role in war on drugs - Inquirer.net - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Study: Mexican Military Should Not Have Intervened In Country's ... - Fronteras: The Changing America Desk - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- The 'War On Drugs' Has Been A Deadly Failure - Huffington Post Australia - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- Senator fighting Philippine president's war on drugs charged without 'iota of evidence,' lawyer says - CBC.ca - February 21st, 2017 [February 21st, 2017]
- Thousands of Filipino Catholics march against death penalty, war on drugs - Reuters - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- Our Aggressive "War on Drugs" Is Not Actually About Drugs - AlterNet - February 22nd, 2017 [February 22nd, 2017]
- War on drugs: a failing battle against suffering - The Suffolk Journal - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Shots fired in war on drugs - Commonwealth Journal's History - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Ureport: WAR ON DRUGS NOT ABOUT PERSONAL FIGHTS - The ... - The Standard (press release) - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Philippines to defend Duterte's drug war at UN rights body - Reuters - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Hidden victims of war on drugs - The Phnom Penh Post - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Palace: Arrest order vs De Lima a 'fulfillment' of war on drugs - Inquirer.net - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Trump administration signals new war on drugs, crackdown on marijuana use - ThinkProgress - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Opponent of Duterte's drugs war arrested in Philippines on drug charges - Reuters - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Philippine citizens protest Duterte's drug war on anniversary of dictatorship overthrow - Deutsche Welle - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- How Rodrigo Duterte's War On Drugs Looks In Colombia - Worldcrunch - February 25th, 2017 [February 25th, 2017]
- Dela Rosa hopes PNP can focus on drug war anew - Banat - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- Philippine police say ready to return to war on drugs as dealers return - Reuters - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- Our View: White House plan reignites wasteful war on drugs - Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- Engaging With The War On Drugs In Ubisoft's Wildlands Documentary - TheSixthAxis - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- There's one last big-ticket item on Trump's agenda: A war on drugs - Raw Story - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- No need to relaunch war on drugs: Duterte aide - ABS-CBN News - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- The Junkie and the Addict: The Moral War on Drugs - Harvard ... - Harvard Political Review - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Duterte orders return of police to war on drugs - ABS-CBN News - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Yasay: Flak on war on drugs, De Lima arrest just 'partisan politics' - ABS-CBN News - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Duterte brings back police into war on drugs - Banat - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Philippine president to bring police back into war on drugs - Reuters - February 28th, 2017 [February 28th, 2017]
- Bands I Pretended to Like for Boys. Part Ten: The War on Drugs ... - TheStranger.com - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Donald Trump Drug War Strategy | National Review - National Review - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]