In the Age of Fentanyl, Test Your Drugs!
Life is a Festival #120: Mitchell Gomez
In 2020 almost 100,000 people died of drug-related incidents in the US, many of those were due to fentanyl adulteration. It’s not just opiates, no white powder is safe and so the cognitive libertarians need to get wise and help each other stay safe. Luckily today on the show we have Mitchell Gomez, Executive Director of DanceSafe, to help us understand why this is happening and how to prevent these unnecessary deaths.
We begin with a nuanced understanding of overdose and harm reduction. We review Mitchell’s personal journey as well as the rise of DanceSafe in response to drug prohibition and issues with pressed pills in the 90s. Halfway through the show at the hour we talk about fentanyl adulteration, why this is happening, how to use fentanyl test strips appropriately, and how to use Narcan if someone is experiencing an overdose. We end our conversation with Mitchell’s vision for a regulated drug market.
Mitchell is the Executive Director for DanceSafe, a health education and harm reduction 501(c)(3) based in Denver, Colorado. He is a Harm Reduction Consultant at the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, and has sat on the CU Denver MURPAA (Master of Urban and Regional Planning Alumni Association) board, the Jefferson County Community Development Advisory Board, and the Denver Drug Strategy Commission Data Subcommittee.
If you love altering your consciousness like I do, test your shit and let’s end prohibition together.
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Timestamps
:09 - Benefit enhancement is a better term than “harm reduction”
:13 - An “overdose” is actually a “prohibition created drug adulteration deaths”
:20 - How Mitchell became a cognitive libertarian
:26 - Intentionally manipulated data on MDMA leads to the “holes in the brain” theory
:33 - Festivals as an initiatory container for psychedelic consciousness exploration
:42 - From Tupperware full of MDMA to pressies and the rise of DanceSafe
:53 - The Rave Act
1:05 - Why we’re seeing Fentanyl adulteration in non-opioid markets
1:21 - Use Fentanyl strips to test your whole bag
1:34 - How to use Narcan
1:48 - A vision for regulated drug markets
Graphics Designed by Andy McErlean
Audio Engineering by Trevor Coulter
Theme song ““Peculiar Colors” [Manjumasi]“ by dj atish