Drug Futurisms

“”Pharmability”, the feasibility to refine materials to drugs by chemical synthesis, purification etc.” – Fabian Steinmetz & Maja Kohek What would it take to grow enough opium poppies for heroin, or coca? Further, how could this be done in an equitable way, recognizing that colonialism is at the heart of the drug war? Fabian is one of several researchers and activists working on these questions. When we initially invited Fabian to come on the podcast, we had hoped to talk about his publication exploring the feasibility and harm reduction merits of developing a vape for freebase cocaine (crack). What we soon learned is that Fabian, like many old school activists, has his hand in many projects. From kratom regulation to psychedelic reform to creating an equitable and non-exploitive coca market. Fabian, a toxicologist by trade, sees a future drug world & is actively imagining what a future drug world could be. Edited by Marcel Rambo Help us imagine better drug futures by having a conversation with a friend, sharing the podcast or supporting us at patreon.com/DrugFuturisms [1] Farmability and pharmability: Transforming the drug market to a health-and human rights-centred approach from self-cultivation to safe supply of controlled substances [2] The cocaine-e-cigarette – A theoretical concept of a harm reduction device for current users of smokable cocaine forms – Fabian P Steinmetz, Heino Stöver, 2021 [3] How to regulate stimulants: A practical guide | Transform

“You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time” – Angela Davis In this episode we get high on alien drugs in a totally sexy way with Mallory Culbert. Mallory is a tech wiz, artist, drug policy activist and the author of Joyeux #1 & 2. She imagines other possible futures, Afro-futures and how harm reduction weaves into not just what we are but could be. Joyeux #1 is an aesthetic masterpiece, and explores drug afrofutures, by reorienting how we see the past. Find out what the new drugs of the future will be, and remember, “Another World is Possible” Edited by Marcel Rambo Help us imagine better drug futures by having a conversation with a friend, sharing the podcast or supporting us at patreon.com/DrugFuturisms CN: Discussion of sexual assault, gendered violence of the drug war, colonialism, inequality, rape culture [1] Joyeux #1 – Mallory Cullbert [2] Silencing the Past – Michel Rolph Trouillot (psst there’s an audiobook version) [3] Johnson & Johnson Vaccine & Colonialism (vid goes through the history, but stops at actually working through the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMY4UOA7E_w&ab_channel=JohnnyHarris [4] Medical testing in Africa (and why it’s colonial): https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/4/8/medical-colonialism-in-africa-is-not-new [4] “Rabbit Test”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_test [5] “science fiction to science fact” see Donna Haraway’s – Staying with the Trouble [6] JOYEUX #2 (thanks Mallory for making it available): https://drive.google.com/file/d/14ZKdzjjFv9SsXkSmAmBaLB0eEJ2rBnkJ/view?usp=sharing

“Who believes today that the war on drug trafficking is achieving victories? Quite the opposite. It’s been a resounding failure” – Juan Ramón Quintana, MAS Minister of the Presidency under Evo Morales *We will now be putting content notes at the bottom of every episode. Check there for trigger warnings* The War on Drugs takes place on multiple battlefields. It is a Global War and a true Forever War. Yet, the ways that it is fought, and the damage it leaves in its wake is different wherever you go. To have a another drug future, a better drug future, means imagining the multiple and sometimes incommensurable futures that can uplift us all. The only way to do that is together, and the only way we can start is by being in conversation with each other. That’s why, over the next several months, we will be interviewing Latin American drug policy and harm reduction activists. Our first two, are Latin America Network of People who use Drugs (LANPUD) activists, Ernesto Cortes of ACEID and Marialba Quesada Abrams of LPSD and a Youth RISE International Working Group Member. Ernesto & Marialba are both from Costa Rica, both anthropologists, and both activists looking to not only interpret the world, but to change it. We will be doing one-on-one episodes with both of them, as well as Marisa Morales from LPSD and is based out of Mexico. We hope to keep doing even more! Edited by Marcel Rambo Help us imagine better drug futures by having a conversation with a friend, sharing the podcast or supporting us at patreon.com/DrugFuturisms CN: Discussion of sexual assault, gendered violence of the drug war, colonialism, inequality, rape culture [1] Source for quote above https://jacobinmag.com/2021/11/us-war-on-drugs-dea-bolivian-democracy-coup-morales-quintana-interview [2] On Canna-colonialism, Dawn Paley https://towardfreedom.org/story/canadas-cannabis-colonialism/ [3] “The Troubles of Medical Cannabis in Colombia” https://www.tni.org/files/publication-downloads/policybrief_52_eng_web.pdf [4] The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade (pssst there’s an audiobook) https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-dope [6] You can check out the readings we did for this episode: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xxfpeslxhvpuzpw/AABVJ9NcyXIswAG6sQnk_L7qa?dl=0 [7] Go like ACEID & LPSD, also check out Ernesto’s writing on the topic here: https://www.tni.org/en/smokable-cocaine

“What is the future we dream of? It is tearing up the drug war by the root. And to me, the roots are in capitalism” – Garth Mullins One person’s now is another person’s future. In times of crisis making the future becomes necessary. In 2013, it would have seemed incredibly unlikely that Canada would legalize cannabis. Now in 2021, drug policy activists in Vancouver, including Garth Mullins, have been involved in providing an alternative drug supply of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, through a co-operative model in Vancouver. We go off the rails and into outer space this episode. We talk about drugs, past, present, and of course, future. Sci-Fi writer, Ursula Le Guin once said that, “Science fiction is not predictive; it is descriptive. Predictions are uttered by prophets…” and so to does our conversation, embody the now, and the now so far off in the distant. We experiment with a new theme for the show, “Would you do this drug?” Edited by Marcel Rambo Help us imagine better drug futures by having a conversation with a friend, sharing the podcast or supporting us at patreon.com/DrugFuturisms Notes: [1] Mark Fisher (2009) Capitalist Realism [2] We reference Silvia Federici’s interview on The Dig https://www.thedigradio.com/podcast/silvia-federici-on-women-and-capitalism/ [3] Learn more about the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) https://www.dulf.ca/ [4] Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Mars Trilogy” is a series of future-thinking socialist fiction

“The dose makes the poison” – Paracelsus (Father of Toxicology)   To get to a different future we not only have to imagine what could be, but help others see what is. Few have spent more time busting the myths of the present and the past as Ryan Marino (@RyanMarino), an Emergency medical toxicologist who takes the ambivalence at the root of the word, “toxicologist” seriously, he has spent years online, and elsewhere busting myths surrounding fentanyl & naloxone in the United States. Recently he was interviewed in the New York Times when a police officer had a panic attack that was attributed as a fentanyl overdose.   Claire & Alex talk with Ryan about the future he would like to see drug policy go in the US and beyond, as well as about why he keeps “toxic” plants, and what we can learn about the ambivalence between poison and medicine when we think about dose. Edited by Marcel Rambo   Help us imagine better drug futures by having a conversation with a friend, sharing the podcast or supporting us at patreon.com/DrugFuturisms Notes: New York Times article on the San Diego Police Department: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/07/us/san-diego-police-overdose-fentanyl.html William James – the Nitrous Philosopher: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/05/the-nitrous-oxide-philosopher/376581/ G. Henderson (1988), on “Designer Drugs” and the potential for fentanyl to replace heroin, https://erowid.org/archive/rhodium/chemistry/designer.drugs.history.html Alex Stevens & Fiona Measham (2014) “The ‘drug policy ratchet’: why do sanctions for new psychoactive drugs typically only go up?” https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/add.12406