best to make leading research available, and when we have a new customer one of my first questions is“ who in your organisation is on board? Who isn’ t? And would you like us to come in and talk about the larger picture?” Because if ten years ago you’ d told me about pipe distribution I don’ t know where I would have been on it.’
about needles in the park or an outcry over public injection, I just want to say“ let’ s get more pipes into the community!”. And when there’ s a financial argument I want to say,“ let’ s get something that’ s reusable, compared to an immediate biohazard, into the community”.’
Is he hopeful that it will all become less controversial in time?‘ Wouldn’ t that be nice? But if ten, 15 years ago we were able to sit down and see the overdose numbers that we see now we’ d also optimistically have said that access to services would rise as well – and it hasn’ t necessarily. There’ s been expansion based largely on naloxone distribution and incorporating that into existing frameworks, but there’ s a backlash to everything too – where people see harm reduction as the enabling movement in a time when we should be pushing people towards recovery.’
UNDER THE RADAR Their relationship with the city and state authorities has been mostly supportive, however, he points out.‘ Maybe we’ re a little spoiled in Massachusetts. Our early goals at Smoke Works were to affect paraphernalia laws and be heavy into advocacy, but we realised there’ s a quieter path that can have better results – because all of those avenues require House and Senate
In 2021 the Innovation in Harm Reduction Coalition awards recognised Smoke Works for‘ pioneering creative and nontraditional approaches to dismantle systems, fight toward equitable policies, and promote harm reduction’.
support, as well as headlines. What we got in Massachusetts was some passive state support and an allowance to spend money on injection alternatives.’
The value of that was more important than‘ changing the paraphernalia laws, that most people didn’ t know how to
Jim Duffy spent several years working in outreach and syringe service programmes in the Boston area, before turning his focus to promoting novel harm reduction interventions through Smoke Works.
interpret anyhow’, he says.‘ So those have been some of the larger wins for us – a handshake deal with a sheriff somewhere, or the board of health saying“ we see the value”. The laws will always lag behind harm reduction, but Massachusetts has been really supportive. They see the effect – I just wish that were replicated everywhere.’
That’ s not to say there haven’ t been challenges, including being blocked by the company processing their payments and having $ 5,000 worth of equipment impounded by customs officials and never returned. He remains philosophical, however.‘ Some of what we’ ve encountered is probably par for a small business. We’ re pretty insulated overall – I just wish we could act in a way that would shield the programmes we work for, because they’ re the ones end who end up taking the majority of the heat.’
Smoke Works always ensures that it works closely with client organisations to equip them with the conversation points that help to illustrate the benefits, he says.‘ We try our
CRANK CALLS While there’ s been some inevitable negative press coverage, they’ ve mostly‘ dodged it by a hair’, he says.‘ But that might not last forever, and we’ re kind of prepared for that. A few years ago our URL was visible in a picture on the front page of the New York Post. but just ever so slightly obscured. We got some crank calls, but frankly they were funny. The brunt of it, unfortunately, is taken on the local level by the organisations doing the outreach and actually connecting with people.’
Is he worried that things could start to get very uncomfortable with the current administration?‘ We’ re concerned, I can’ t lie,’ he says.‘ We know this is on the radar of some folks in the administration, and it seems like things move very quickly from a local headline to Fox News to the president’ s desk these days. That’ s not lost on us, which is why we really value the silence around our work because it means we can move quicker.’
But that inevitably also presents a problem when it comes to advocacy, he points out.‘ If the New York Times called us tomorrow and said“ we want do a cover story on how awesome pipe distribution is”, I’ d think twice. Which is a really shitty place to be in, right? But the advocacy really comes down to the folks on the front lines. They’ re doing the heaviest lifting.’ DDN https:// smokeworks. org /
Jim Duffy is one of the speakers at this year’ s DDN conference in Birmingham on 10 July. For more information and to book your place visit https:// www. drinkanddrugsnews. com / ddnconference-2025 /
16 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • JUNE 2025 WWW. DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS. COM