day,’ says Smoke Works

at a fantastically well-funded needle exchange, and we might see 100 to 150 people a

executive director Jim Duffy.‘ But we’ d walk out the door through a crowd of 20 or more people smoking crack. These were people that we didn’ t know – and it was our job to know people.’ The reason they weren’ t coming through the door was because they didn’ t think there was anything relevant for them at the exchange, he says – which meant they were missing out on all the add-on services it offered.‘ I myself never went into a needle exchange when I was using drugs heavily,’ he states.‘ I smoked, and had something brought me in I would’ ve found free and anonymous HIV testing, I

would’ ve found bad coffee and good people, and all the things that make a welcoming environment – somewhere to bring problems that usually don’ t get answered elsewhere.’

NO EASY ANSWERS It was while working at Boston’ s AHOPE exchange that he and co-founder Nate got the idea for Smoke Works, a harm reduction organisation that provides pipes and other smoking equipment, alongside training, technical assistance and advocacy.‘ With stimulant use at the time, it was almost like people were afraid of it,’ he says.‘ There was a perception that it was easier to work with people on opioids, whereas the presentation alone with stimulants made people nervous.’ There were also‘ no easy answers’, he adds

‘ We learned quickly that as much as we thought we knew everything, we didn’ t realise that not everybody wants to inject. So the effect was immediate, and the effect was huge.’

–‘ no silver bullet in case of emergencies, like naloxone.’

Another disincentive to incorporating services for people who used stimulants was that it meant redefining job roles, he

says.‘ We were serving people who use opioids, and that’ s a specific demographic, but we needed to be serving the entire community of people who use drugs. That’ s a challenge for a lot of folks. But obviously most of our people were already on more than one substance, and we just couldn’ t address it with them – we didn’ t have the tools.’

BUYER’ S CLUBS They began sourcing and distributing pipes on their time off from AHOPE, and in 2020 developed the first of their‘ buyer’ s clubs’ where different harm reduction organisations would pool their resources to get more pipes for a lower outlay. As the demand continued to grow, they also began to channel the profits back to underfunded harm reduction groups to help

bortonia / iSock

14 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • JUNE 2025

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