The Church of Safe Injection

hahahah

its all in the name

www.huffingtonpost.com...

i guess people call him Narcan Jesus

But Jesse Harvey, a 26-year-old recovery coach with long sideburns and a Che Guevara T-shirt just visible under his unzipped black raincoat, isn’t having it. “I’m not Jesus,” he said. He is, however, the founder and face of the provocatively named Church of Safe Injection.

Far from a brick-and-mortar house of worship, Harvey has been running the “church” out of the back of his Honda Fit since October. One night a week, he parks his car by Lewiston’s Kennedy Park, where drug users often congregate, and, along with a group of volunteers, distributes clean needles and Narcan, a brand of the overdose-reversal antidote naloxone, to anyone who stops by. All the while, Harvey preaches that Jesus would have embraced and supported people who use drugs, not shunned them.

Those people have taken up Harvey’s cause, establishing 18 branches of the church across eight states

Harvey has plans to incorporate the church as a nonprofit, and then to apply for a religious exemption to the Controlled Substances Act so that he can open a safe injection site, where drug users who aren’t ready for treatment would be able to inject in a clean, safe place, under supervision.

pretty wild.

i am not sure how i feel about these clean needle centers.
not for. not against. just not sure

but this seems like a stretch.

narcan jesus supervising people out of his car is about to apply for religious exemption and plans to incorporate his church.

i guess my big issue is just that these people like narcan jesus have good intentions that does not mean they are responsible or educated.


just seems wild.

i guess everything is a church these days

Mocking religion isn't going to help anyone get clean.

In fact, it's probably counterproductive.

What an asshole.

He must get great sense of satisfaction out of enabling so many lost soles.


What a guy.

I fully support the dispensing of Narcan and clean needles. The whole applying for a religious exemption to the controlled substance act, not sure about that one tho.

originally posted by: annoyedpharmacist
I fully support the dispensing of Narcan and clean needles. The whole applying for a religious exemption to the controlled substance act, not sure about that one tho.

thats what is throwing me too

a reply to: TinySickTears

The street is flooded with cheap opiates for years now, especially heroin. Making it easier for junkies to avoid overdose and infection is a cheap and obvious alternative to doing nothing.

The British did little in the years 1845-1849 during the Irish potato famine and millions died.

It may not be much of a theology, but seriously, who here is going to argue against the premise, "addicts don't deserve to die"? I mean, what do we do with drunk drivers -- leave them strapped in their wrecks to die? Alcholics kill other people more often than opiate addicts do. And yet laws protect them from poisonous booze, and permit them to drink safely off the street.

Junkies and drunks can be disgusting, irresponsible drains on society. But they are still human beings -- our brothers, sisters, parents and children, neighbors.

Moralizing never helped any one with an addiction, and America is a nation of addicts, addicted to all kinds of things.

originally posted by: Namdru


It may not be much of a theology, but seriously, who here is going to argue against the premise, "addicts don't deserve to die"?

i agree and something needs to be done.
i dont have the answers


but this just sounds funny

you know

you have to incorporate as a church/religion with you little schtick.
church of safe injection

i dont know man

a reply to: TinySickTears


Part of me wants to say he is an enabler, another part admires his ability to care for the one's trapped in a hell that not everyone can understand.


I am not sure what the answer is to helping people in that situation, but I do know that it starts with caring about the people first.

a reply to: TinySickTears

We have had safe injection sites here for years, the consensus is they do work.

a reply to: TinySickTears

you have to incorporate as a church/religion with you little schtick. church of safe injection i dont know man

Yeah it is hokey. But the advantage with religion is certain things can be done with a religious exemption. For example, if I'm a pyro, I can't burn leaves in my barbecue just to watch the pretty yellow-white smoke float up. My neighbors will complain. But if I am doing a Buddhist ritual, they can call the police (as they did once) and then the police can assure me, my rights to conduct a religious ceremony out of doors, involving smoke or fire, is protected under state law (with federal statues backing the state ones). This really happened to me once. It's a trivial example.

I think the dude is desperate to do something to help. And also, he's frustrated with the limited religious interpretations surrounding the recovery movement. It's an experiment and also a great publicity stunt to draw attention to the problem -- the specific problem of governments making it harder, not easier, to protect the welfare of some of its most vulnerable citizens. And if he's claiming religious exemption, it makes it harder for the state to shut him down, at least in so far as he can bring a civil rights suit against the authorities if they keep fining him or charging him with even worse violations than a misdemeanor.

originally posted by: MisterSpock
He must get great sense of satisfaction out of enabling so many lost soles.


What a guy.

Poser. He’s just biting on someone else’s rhetoric: Tom’s Shoes with Soles

Must’ve watched too much SNL, lately.

Gotta love sole satisfaction. And a$$holes. Can I get an “Amen” — I’d settle for enabled pair of Chuck Taylor’s...?

I have no sympathy for junkies. I have too many in my family. Too many Crack-baby cousins.

It's a choice, not a disease.

I'm fine with these charities, but not requiring police to carry narcan. You get these dirtbags getting narcanned 5-6 times in a month. Then they finally geek out while driving and crash in to someone.

Let them die, better for everyone in the long run.

originally posted by: watchitburn
I have no sympathy for junkies. I have too many in my family. Too many Crack-baby cousins.

It's a choice, not a disease.

I'm fine with these charities, but not requiring police to carry narcan. You get these dirtbags getting narcanned 5-6 times in a month. Then they finally geek out while driving and crash in to someone.

Let them die, better for everyone in the long run.

Agreed. No sympathy. Have some in my family too. Let em snuff themselves. All those resuscitation ads and billboards really annoy me too. We're at the point where this country values non-citizens and junkies more than the average working man.

originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha

originally posted by: watchitburn
I have no sympathy for junkies. I have too many in my family. Too many Crack-baby cousins.

It's a choice, not a disease.

I'm fine with these charities, but not requiring police to carry narcan. You get these dirtbags getting narcanned 5-6 times in a month. Then they finally geek out while driving and crash in to someone.

Let them die, better for everyone in the long run.

Agreed. No sympathy. Have some in my family too. Let em snuff themselves. All those resuscitation ads and billboards really annoy me too. We're at the point where this country values non-citizens and junkies more than the average working man.

Had my little brother go that route.

All he did in life was cause everyone around him pain.

As a family we were actually better off after he died.

So yes, it isn't a damn disease... it is a personal life choice.

You are choosing to make everyone that loves you pay the price for your own lack of spine.

Hate this topic but it's true.

As for the OP, it's just another person making money off of our societal problems.

So why not 501C?

If you are going to be a parasite, at lease do it right....

originally posted by: MisterSpock
He must get great sense of satisfaction out of enabling so many lost soles.


What a guy.

DO lost souls deserve to OD in a gutter, then?

originally posted by: gallop

originally posted by: MisterSpock
He must get great sense of satisfaction out of enabling so many lost soles.


What a guy.

DO lost souls deserve to OD in a gutter, then?

Isn't that the definition?

originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha
We're at the point where this country values non-citizens and junkies more than the average working man.

That's sad.. And you both state you have addicts in your own families, yet still wish them to perish.

Historically, the average working man has never cared about people in other countries or people trapped in a slow form of suicide. Seems, while the left and the right are getting loopier, the middle class are rebuilding picket fences.

originally posted by: Lumenari

originally posted by: gallop

originally posted by: MisterSpock
He must get great sense of satisfaction out of enabling so many lost soles.


What a guy.

DO lost souls deserve to OD in a gutter, then?

Isn't that the definition?

I dunno, but that's typically where people go to shoot up, or in a park somewhere. OD, no one to help, good riddance. None of this safe injection rooms, that's enabling !

originally posted by: gallop

originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha
We're at the point where this country values non-citizens and junkies more than the average working man.

That's sad.. And you both state you have addicts in your own families, yet still wish them to perish.

Historically, the average working man has never cared about people in other countries or people trapped in a slow form of suicide. Seems, while the left and the right are getting loopier, the middle class are rebuilding picket fences.

Addicts do something that they know can kill them.

And they keep doing it.

Free choice is what I'm seeing here...

Are you anti free choice?

originally posted by: gallop

originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha
We're at the point where this country values non-citizens and junkies more than the average working man.

That's sad.. And you both state you have addicts in your own families, yet still wish them to perish.

I didn't wish for anything and don't care what they do. Just sayin'...let water find its own level...