order for people to liberate themselves from external controls , they have to know

about these controls ,’ said Black Panther activist Huey Newton . ‘ Consciousness of the expropriator is necessary for expropriating the expropriator , for throwing off external controls .’

For this issue , we are departing from our usual case studies about drug treatment and instead turning our attention towards RATS , a drug user union . RATS (‘ radical acts to survive ’) offers an alternative vision of care practices to that currently on offer through mainstream services . Our purpose in highlighting RATS is not to suggest that this organising model replaces those services . Rather , we hope that it serves as a useful comparison point , and inspires further change in favour of self-determination and community care .

RATS is a budding drug user union set up primarily by migrants , sex workers , and queer and trans people . Union members share experiences of otherisation , pathologisation , and the denial of agency and care – conditioned by their particular relations to multiple and intersecting systems of oppression .

Recognising this interplay , RATS understands all liberation movements to be deeply intertwined . While their work focuses on experiences faced by people who use drugs , they embrace a politics of radical solidarity . For instance , the union centres the needs of sex workers and combats tropes around ‘ drug using sex workers ’, highlighting their use to justify harm against both drug users and sex workers . RATS believes in

a shared project of liberation and seeks to build collective power through dismantling harmful structures while also building a stronger , diverse , and connected drug user community .

RATS members are not willing to quietly sit back and allow fellow drug users to be punished , imprisoned and killed , and so they are ready to take ' radical action to survive ' in order to dismantle the structures that harm , resource a more resilient community , and build power amongst people who use drugs . RATS was instrumental in establishing the Harm Reduction Hub at Release ’ s offices . The hub is a low threshold drop-in harm reduction centre that offers a welcoming non-judgemental environment , safer use materials , harm reduction literature , and pathways toward further support . The union continues to steer the development of the hub through delivering the Harm Reduction School training programme , staffing out-of-hours hub shifts , and fundraising .

As a drug user union , RATS rejects the service-client dichotomy , instead working towards a shared liberatory project . Their aim is for the hub to be a space for coproduction , where people who share overlapping experiences of marginalisation can build community and better meet each other ’ s needs .

At the same time , RATS continues to politicise the need for the hub in the first instance . The hub would not be as necessary in a world which was kinder to drug users . Prohibition means that people ’ s basic needs – such as knowing

what ’ s in the drugs they use – are systematically denied . RATS makes these points clear and invites other drug users to similarly create pockets of solidarity and resistance .

People who use drugs and other groups impacted by the ‘ drug war ’ are made vulnerable to premature death through their interaction with systems that restrict and diminish life . To better understand their functioning , in view of dismantling them , the Harm Reduction School is required training for all potential hub volunteers .

The training politicises harm reduction , tracing harm back to its root causes . Sessions cover topics such as racial capitalism , disability justice , and sex worker liberation . At the same time , the school equips participants with skills to meet the immediate needs of their communities . This includes practical workshops on harm reduction techniques , mental health safety planning , and deescalation skills , among others . By sharing and building on each other ’ s skills , whilst collectively sharpening structural analysis , RATS aims to build more resilient communities , better capable of sustainably responding to the harm they experience .

Through its emphasis on

Prohibition means that people ’ s basic needs – such as knowing what ’ s in the drugs they use – are systematically denied .

building grassroots community power , RATS embodies a radical reimagining of care by and for people who use drugs . Where healing does not result from individualised and topdown decision-making , but from practices that nurture collective resilience , connection and solidarity .

The ‘ drug war ’ continues , maintaining racial and social control across the globe . RATS offers a vision of grassroots resistance by cultivating power together as people who use drugs . By fostering an autonomous and politicised health and community space , the work of RATS gestures towards a future where everyone can experience greater safety , autonomy , and wellbeing .

Shayla Schlossenberg is drugs service coordinator at Release

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