Jess Tilly

Jess Tilly

Interviewed on September 02, 2022 over Zoom

Recorded by Deborah Chassler

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Summary: Jess Tilley is the Executive Director of the New England Drug Users Union. She is co-founder of Harm Reduction Hedgehogs 413(HRH413), an organization doing outreach to drug users in Western Massachusetts. Jess is also a member of the HEALing Communities Study Community Advisory Board.

Early in the discussion, Jess said trauma was her gateway drug. She started using heroin during her teenage years and faced severe consequences from her use. In the

1990s she was referred to Tapestry. Prior to engaging with harm reduction

support, Jess had been alienated and isolated. Receiving material aid in a

compassionate, non-transactional, non-judgmental way from folks at Tapestry

helped her become grounded in herself and her identity. It was also a turning

point for her, as she realized this would be her calling as well. She kept showing

up to Tapestry to help with projects and they made sure she had a reason to

show up. She reflects that the people who mentored her in the late 1990s

became leaders at the national level- people like Adam Butler, Tim Purrington,

Luciano Collona.

She shares about the shift in popular public health and public policy discourses,

which have become much more favorable to harm reduction. While the

Sommerville Mayor’s fight for a safe consumption site is a measure of progress,

Jess asks us not to forget that MA has a rich history of underground safe

consumption prior to the opioid overdose crisis. She said people don’t talk about

it because they don’t want to go to jail.

It’s always going to be people who use drugs, the people who trade sex, and

allies who lead the movement. But using drugs is not a requirement to do

authentic harm reduction work. The arch of Jess’ identification within the

movement has been shaped by her own integration of intersectional identities-

whether that be queer, current IV drug user, former sex worker, former IV drug

user, etcetera. Ultimately the access point to doing harm reduction work is not

identity or experience, but motivation. All identities are valid. She has found allies

in unexpected places, including in police departments, as law enforcement has

realized they cannot “arrest their way out of this” and have signaled openness to

safe consumption sites.

In the face of rapid increasing overdose deaths with the onset of fentanyl in the

drug supply, Jess is challenged to see whether harm reduction can be the full the

answer. Noting that without more progressive drug policies and access to a safe

supply, for example through medical prescriptions, harm reduction cannot work.

Her role as a harm reductionist is complicated. She shared that in the harm

reduction community abstinence can be othering, and she was challenged to

identify as a harm reductionist and be abstinent. The in-fighting between harm

reductionists, 12-step communities, and anyone invested in the survival and

wellness of people who use drugs creates unnecessary loss. Erecting these

barriers is antithetical to the true spirit of harm reduction: radical love, personal

autonomy, possibility of change, and helping people stay alive.

Over the course of her work in harm reduction, Jess has expanded her on the

ground service and activism and works with academics and people in public

health and medicine as part of her efforts. When she was using drugs, she could

manage her epilepsy, aphasia, and social anxiety and present a public-facing

identity with more confidence. During her period of abstinence, she had an

increasingly public identity and broader scope of influence was challenged to

navigate these difficulties without substances. She stepped away from the larger

movement for a period of seven years, but remained connected in specific

communities, like Worcester, MA and Camden, NJ. Eventually she reemerged

and realized she could share her story and build allyship to the advantage of the

work she is doing.

Interviewer: Deborah Chassler

Interview language: English

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