Adam Butler
Adam Butler
Interviewed on November 3, 2022 over Zoom
Recorded by Deborah Chassler
Listen to the full recording of the interview:
Listen to selected excerpts of the interview:
Summary: No maybe that wasn’t the sequence. During the interview he got tears in his eyes a few times as he told stories of the work he did and experiences and lessons.
Subjects and themes:
• How he first learned about harm reduction
• What harm reduction is – no judgment
• The importance of not owning harm reduction or the decisions of other people. He spoke about getting his ego out of the way, which can be a struggle. He gave many examples of how this manifests.
• He spoke about his jobs, therapy, and growth over the decades of his work.
• Praised MA DPH for bringing providers together.
• The importance, meaning, and operationalization of not judging others.
• He spoke about people making their own choices and he is not responsible for their choices.
• “It is pretty amazing that when you allow people to speak their truths, THEY DO!”
• He got a lot of support from the harm reduction community.
• He described the development, acceptance, and ongoing pushback towards syringe exchanges.
• It is always about the people and the relationships you build with them.
• Stigma is strong and yet things and people can change.
• He mentioned Menino supporting the placing harm reduction vans around the city. The police did not always go along with that.
• Dilemmas of calling 911 and the good Samaritan law; of working with pregnant and parenting women who use drugs
• He has worked in many, many communities in MA and at a variety of state and city jobs, at many needle exchanges, as a case manager for people with HIV.
• He reflected on the spread of HEP C.
• He talked about the role of the many community advisory boards (CABs) that he worked with, why they were so instrumental in bringing change to communities, why they are so essential.
• Judgement and being judgemental was a theme.
• Who should get Narcan and some people in the movement who want to ‘own’ the people who use drugs and ‘own’ Narcan and have say over who should get it, and these are my people, a problematic concept for him.
• He told a story about working with moms of people using drugs.
• Toward the end he said drug use is personal choice and not to blame anything else, like laws. He said we can have better laws and we are still dealing with a drug that kids.
• Harm reduction is neutral, not pro and not against, but a neutral zone, though in reality we are pro-drug in that individuals own their use.
• Always remind yourself the street is someone’s home and mind your manners.
Interviewer: Deborah Chassler
Interview language: English
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