By Michael Hodock, The Paper. – There’s a lifesaving resource that many business owners might not think about keeping on hand in case of emergencies, and it probably saved someone’s life at one Albuquerque establishment that operates next door to a local music shop and punk rock hotspot.
“There was this little homeless guy that would always come around and throw our trash and stuff. The people that lived behind us saw him laid out behind our shop, so we went over there to go see what was going on. I kind of freaked out because they said someone was dead back there. He was so purple. He was all blue, dude. We started doing CPR, and then went and got the Narcan,” Polite of Polite’s Bodega on San Mateo says.
With the help of paramedics, Polite and her neighborhood of good Samaritans administered live-saving aid. And she says she obtained the Narcan – a nasal spray that blocks opioid receptors in the brain – from the dudes at Longhair Records, a shop that hosts live events and caters to music lovers with radical tastes. Longhair carries Narcan at all times, and the employees say they obtained it from their friends at the Punk Safety Initiative, or PSI for short.
“Harm reduction itself really aligns well with the punk ethos of collective liberation – being inclusive in a way where everyone is involved,” PSI Co-Executive Director and Director of Outreach Max Randall says. “It’s alternative people looking for alternative ways to express themselves and keep each other safe. And so I felt like the marriage of harm reduction and punk music naturally fit well.”
PSI’s philosophy may sound counter-cultural, but the youth of Burque seem pretty hip to safer drug use practices these days. The organization just celebrated their third birthday party at Differential Brewing, and the place was packed with punks and metalheads of all ages. Although most of the attendees did look fairly young, it doesn’t mean the folks at PSI are novices when it comes to public health and safety. Randall and cofounders Carina Klein and Andrew Angel are all UNM School of Medicine students. Randall and Angel graduate from their program this month, and one of the volunteers at their booth was a working paramedic. Since most of the folks in charge of leadership at PSI are in their 20s and early 30s, Randall says it helps them keep a finger “on the pulse of what’s going on” in the music community. They rely on young people to do their work effectively.
“We’re a mobile outreach service that works almost exclusively from the hours of 7 to 11 p.m., and that’s easier to do when you’re in your 20s,” Randall says.
PSI works mainly with the DIY, punk, metal and rave scenes in Albuquerque, and they try their best to advocate for the needs of people who use drugs. Randall says PSI uses a “mobile outreach format” which involves bringing a table to a show, a skate park or wherever people invite them and handing out materials such as Naloxone (Narcan), syringes, fentanyl test strips and sexual and reproductive health items for free. He says PSI hopes that people recognize the organization as a safe space where they can ask for resources when they need it. Punks will be punks, so if you’re out “moshing it up,” biffing on your board or injecting drugs, PSI will provide you with basic wound care. They’ll even hook you up with water and snacks if you need a pit stop.
“We take the philosophy that everyone should be able to make their own decisions with dignity and autonomy,” Randall says. “If recovery is their goal, we can help navigate resources for people who are interested in that. We [also] have lots of questions from folks who are on the gender expansive spectrum about where they can get services.”
Randall says PSI tabled their first show at Longhair and they plan to continue a long-standing collaboration with their “homies” at that punk-friendly San Mateo plaza. This week you can find them posted up at the all-ages music venue Ren’s Den in Barelas and in the coming weeks at The Iron Cathedral, a newer venue featuring extreme music. They’re wrapping up plans for their next fundraiser at Sister on May 24.
“We’re moving away from the paternalistic, abstinence-only way of education to protect people,” Randall says. “People have used drugs for thousands of years, and the war on drugs did nothing but criminalize and harm people. I think it did much more [bad] than good. People aren’t going to stop using drugs. And so harm reduction is there for those whose goal is not to stop using, but want to learn how to use safer. It’s an inherently radical practice that meets an inherently radical music philosophy and genre.”