During a webinar I joined as an international participant, a recurring thought finally came into focus. With Support. Don’t Punish Day approaching, I felt I had a unique opportunity to do something different. Having attended countless webinars, events, and collaborative spaces, I saw the need for new ways to connect beyond national boundaries and unite across borders. The urgency was clear. After engaging in conversations with friends and fellow harm reductionists, we began putting together an event that responds to the present moment.
The harm reduction movement is facing immense challenges globally, and people who use drugs continue to experience criminalization, marginalization, and systemic neglect. Despite this, I’ve witnessed powerful pockets of resistance and care. What’s been missing, however, are spaces where we can come together across borders and regions to share our stories, experiences, and strategies. I believe that finding ways to do this strengthens our shared work. That’s why we organized this event; to harness the power of connection and solidarity in our communities and across regions. We are stronger when we are not siloed.
Solidarity Across Borders: Support. Don’t Punish 2025 is designed as a space for discussion, collaboration, and making noise together. Hosted by the RECLAIM Collective, in partnership with others in the movement, this gathering offers a chance to share stories, strategies, and support among harm reductionists, drug policy advocates, researchers, outreach workers, and people with lived and living experience. Rooted in compassion and community care, it’s a call to action and a reminder that we are not alone. In coming together, we hope to build momentum and prepare collectively for the work ahead.
A Global Movement, Shared Struggle, and Why Solidarity Matters
Despite some progress, we have also had setbacks in many regions. Global drug policy still leans heavily on punitive measures. Criminalization, stigma, and systemic discrimination continue to drive people into the shadows, making drug use unnecessarily dangerous and isolating. The international harm reduction movement knows the truth: punishment doesn’t save lives, support does.
By coming together on Support. Don’t Punish Day, we repeat our collective mantra: the war on drugs has failed. As we come together as grassroots outreach workers, activists, policy advocates, people who use drugs and peer support workers, we will speak about what we are facing in the places we live and share with one another in an effort to connect and solidify our bonds. We are all part of a single, powerful tapestry, fighting for shared values like dignity, human rights, and evidence-based care.
Solidarity is more than a buzzword. People are hurt and lives are lost. People who use drugs share a common cause rooted in the same fight against stigma, neglect, and unjust policies, while we face systemic harms, discrimination and stigma globally. But this manifests in different ways from place to place. Therefore, we need to learn from one another how our struggles are shaped by different legal systems, regional realities and cultural contexts.This kind of unity gives our message more weight. Policymakers can ignore small, scattered voices, but when movements across cities and continents come together with a shared call to action, our united cry pushes the world to pay attention.
Join Us on June 24th: Let’s Talk Action and Make Change
In support of this global movement, the RECLAIM Collective will host an international online event in preparation for Support. Don’t Punish Day on June 26th. This event will bring together international speakers and provide an opportunity not only to amplify local campaigns but to weave them into a global chorus taking the form of a two-hour Zoom event featuring a global panel discussing what “support” and “punish”mean, and how they manifest in different regions around the world.
We will then open the floor for discussion, allowing participants to explore how we can advocate for change through dialogue, idea-sharing, and coalition-building. Let’s connect, collaborate, learn, and organize in a space rooted in compassion and community care.
This year, the RECLAIM Collective, in partnership with other organizations and the wider community, is offering something we hope will be both unique and powerful. Please check out the participants’ bio’s and list of supporting organizations below!
Join us on June 24th, 2025 (11 am – 1 pm EST Toronto/New York)!
Zoom Registration link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3FFo61jeThiIokUiyMqDXA
Supporting Organizations:
Gua’kia
Hungarian Civil Liberties Union
National Harm Reduction Coalition
Sharer Initiative for Development and Innovation
Speaker Bio’s:
Ann Livingston
Community Organizer & Activist | Vancouver, BC, Canada
Ann Livingston is a community organizer and long-time activist based in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES). She has been a leading voice in harm reduction and drug user rights for over two decades. In 1995, she opened the Back Alley, one of North America’s first unsanctioned safe injection sites. In 1997, she co-founded the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), serving as its executive program director for over a decade and helping expand its membership to over 3,000. Her advocacy played a key role in the establishment of Insite, North America’s first sanctioned supervised injection site.
Ann also co-founded the Pivot Legal Society, and helped launch organizations such as the BC Association of People on Methadone and the Overdose Prevention Society. She continues her work today through the Nanaimo Area Network of Drug Users (NANDU), advocating for safe supply and systemic reform.
Azzy-Mae Ní Mháille
New England Users Union & Victory Programs | Boston, MA, USA
Azzy-Mae is a 33 year old neurodivergent transfeminine non-binary person living, working, and organizing in the Greater Boston area. She is a PWUD/PWID (person who uses drugs / person who injects drugs), and she has been actively studying and consuming psychoactive substances for 18+ years. Additionally, prior to working in public health, Azzy-Mae engaged in the illicit substance trade for 9+ years, where she provided a great deal of ad-hoc drug education, harm reduction education, and psychedelic first-aid.
Azzy-Mae has been working in public health for 8 years. Having left a 12 year career in culinary arts to help open the first syringe exchange in her hometown of Gloucester in 2016, she continued to work on the North Shore until 2019 when she shifted to doing outreach work in Boston. Recently, Azzy-Mae managed a harm reduction program for trans/GNC folks as well as cis women; most of whom are experiencing houselessness, engaged in sex work, or consuming substances. Currently Azzy-Mae manages a Mobile Prevention program focusing on street-level harm reduction outreach and HIV/HCV/STI testing.
Azzy-Mae sits on a statewide harm reduction advisory council, a public health data community advisory board, and does independent training and consulting for organizations and the general public. Azzy-Mae engages in a lot of off hours public-facing low-threshold education through various social media platforms, primarily linkedin and instagram.
Outside of work, Azzy-Mae has engaged in political activism locally and nationally. Azzy-mae is a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) Boston branch, the Eastern Massachusetts Branch Representative of the New England Users Union, and has been involved in or provided support for organizations involved in PWUD liberation, Black liberation, Indigenous sovereignty, anti-fascism, anti-imperialism, disability justice, immigrant justice, housing + houselessness, labor, and LGBTQ+ liberation struggles.”
Brandon Shaw
4b Harm Reduction & Curbside Philosophy | Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Brandon Shaw is the co-founder of 4B Harm Reduction Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the harms caused by bad drug policy through mobile outreach, advocacy, and community building. Based in Edmonton, Brandon brings powerful lived experience to his work, having spent 15 years living rough on the city’s streets.
Since exiting homelessness, he has spent the last two and a half years fighting for those still out there, working alongside his mother, Angela Staines, to build 4B into a trusted frontline organization. Brandon’s story and advocacy have been featured on the Crackdown podcast, helping bring national attention to the realities of life on the street and the urgent need for compassionate, community-led harm reduction. He continues to be a voice for the voiceless and an advocate for those who have none.
Caty Simon
National Survivors Union | Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA
Caty Simon is a harm reductionist and activist with over 20 years of experience organizing with and for low-income people, psychiatric survivors, people who use drugs, and sex workers. She is a leadership team member at the National Survivors Union (NSU) and executive staff in two affiliated groups. Caty also works as a research assistant at the Yale School of Medicine, focusing on drug policy and treatment.
Her work centers lived experience and community leadership, and in 2023, she was awarded the Alfred R. Lindesmith Award for Achievement in the Field of Scholarship at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference.
Ebenezer Chukwu
Sharer Initiative for Development and Innovation | Nigeria
Ebenezer Chukwu is a public health professional and harm reduction expert with eight years of experience in Nigeria and Ghana. He is the founder of the Sharer Initiative for Development and Innovation, a non-profit organization focused on harm reduction and sustainable development. Ebenezer is a member of the Drug Harm Reduction Advocacy Network Nigeria and has led harm reduction projects funded by the Global Fund, USAID, PEPFAR, and ISDAO.
Gaby Zabala Alemán
Gua’kia & National Harm Reduction Coalition | Puerto Rico
Gaby Zabala Alemán (they/she) is a nonbinary, neurodivergent Boricua harm reductionist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker with lived experience in drug use, sex work, and mental health. They are the Vice President of the Board of Gua’kia—the first peer-led harm reduction organization in Puerto Rico—and a consultant with the National Harm Reduction Coalition.
Gaby co-leads two major network-building efforts:
- Red CEIBA, a grassroots Boricua harm reduction network for mutual support and funding redistribution.
- A Global Latinx Harm Reduction Network, connecting Latinx harm reductionists across the global North and South.
Gaby is committed to abolitionist politics and advancing a human rights approach to harm reduction.
Megan Kinch
Journalist & Harm Reduction Advocate | Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Megan Kinch is a journalist and harm reduction advocate based in Toronto. Her reporting focuses on the intersections of labor, health, and social justice, with work published in outlets such as Our Times Magazine and The Grind. She has written about the opioid crisis’s impact on construction workers, and the struggles of migrant agricultural laborers in Canada.
Beyond journalism, Megan advocates for compassionate, evidence-based drug policies that prioritize dignity and public health.
Ranjan Khanal
National Harm Reduction Association | Nepal
Ranjan Khanal is a public health professional and coordinator at the National Harm Reduction Association Nepal. He has played a vital role in advancing harm reduction strategies that mitigate the health and social harms of drug use.
Ranjan actively participates in national and international forums, advocating for rights-based, evidence-driven drug policy reform in Nepal and beyond.
Tamás Kardos
Hungarian Civil Liberties Union | Hungary
Tamás Kardos is a drug policy expert at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU). Formerly the lead author and editor of Medijuana Magazine, his work has appeared in Revista Cáñamo España, TalkingDrugs, and Drugreporter.
Tamás is a strong advocate for the decriminalization of drug use and the expansion of harm reduction. He helped draft Budapest’s first harm reduction-focused Drug Strategy and organized Hungary’s first Medical Cannabis Conference. His focus areas include medical cannabis, human rights, and drug policy reform.
Tanagra Maria Melgarejo Pulido (co-facilitator)
National Harm Reduction Coalition | Puerto Rico
Tanagra Melgarejo is the Lead Director of National Capacity Building and Engagement at the National Harm Reduction Coalition (NHRC), where she leads the development of harm reduction programs across the U.S. and its territories. Born and raised in Puerto Rico to Mexican and Cuban immigrant parents, she holds an MSW from the University of Puerto Rico.
Tanagra is certified as an abortion doula, death doula, and grief counselor. Outside of work, she enjoys Nordic noir fiction, cooking, and collective dreaming toward dismantling systems of oppression—including white supremacy, imperialism, and patriarchy.