Israeli Food for People Who Use Drugs?

When some of your friends want your other friends dead, try a new recipe!

Harm reduction is under attack nation wide, and especially in Philadelphia. The attempts to tear down the harm reduction infrastructure that has saved many lives are terrifying. Our mayor would prefer that people get HIV and other diseases rather than get clean needles. This only results in more suffering and death, not in anyone getting off drugs.

Some of us in the harm reduction community who are Jewish or supporters of Israel have been horrified at some of our fellows’ knee jerk anti-Israel stances. My dear friend Efrem Nulman, PhD, one of the early researchers in psychedelics, spoke out against this when the psychedelic community rushed to support those who had massacred innocent people at a music festival where psychedelic fans would have fit right in. It is absurd for people who use drugs or support those who use drugs to identify with radical Islamic terrorists. Radical Islam is no friend of drug users. This seems as obvious as the fact that they are no friends of anyone LGBT+ but as someone I am familiar with said, “Chickens for KFC.”

I often find myself in the position of having friends who hate each other because I hold some viewpoints very strongly that aren’t often seen together. Many of my liberal Jewish friends may find themselves in a similar boat these days. Last night I was attempting to explain to someone close to me that while I am deeply concerned about much of Trump’s domestic agenda, I am thrilled with what I believe will be his policy on the Middle East. I have no qualms about full support of Israel. I look forward to the enforcement of the laws of this country on people who violently riot in the name of terrorists. Send those kids back to class and suspend or expel any who harass their fellow students or staff. Get the American newbie terrorists off the streets. Support peaceful free expression, under the law. And I can’t wait for Rep. soon to be Ambassador Elise Stefanik to get to the UN. If ever there was the perfect appointment that’s it. She may be a little crazy, and I am just as happy to have her not playing a role in domestic policy, but I can’t wait to see her do at the UN what she did in Congress to the university presidents who refused to protect Jewish students.

I sympathize tremendously with those who want an end to the vast homeless encampments. My city is not that far off from there, and it is only our winters that prevent us from becoming like LA or San Francisco. I had occasion to speak with thousands of people in Southern California who were dealing with this issue, and the word “apocalyptic” came up over and over again. My way of dealing with it, though, might be different from many conservatives.

Getting people off the streets by putting them in prison is expensive, cruel, and makes the problem worse. Getting people off the streets into supportive housing with supervised injection sites is cheaper and gives peopleI a chance to possibly get better or to live out their days in some kind of peace. While Gabor Mate annoys me to no end for reasons that need not detain us, the Portland Hotel Community is a model of how this can be done. Getting people off the streets and into supportive housing fixes the problem of homeless encampments and is likely to produce some happy, healthy, and productive citizens who just need a chance. All those whose families could not help them or have abandoned them deserve a chance, and again, it’s way cheaper than prison.

Which brings me to the title of this post.

I recently found an Israeli cookbook for free on our free table down the street. (Free tables are one of the good things about my dystopian neighborhood). I’ve wanted to try some Israeli recipes, but I don’t have a lot of people to cook for. Sad because my preferred state of existence is to have weekly dinner parties that are informal, alcohol-free gatherings of good food and fun. But anyway. My cat shelter partner has promised to eat my Israeli food, and that’s a start. It occurred to me that a good friend of mine used to make meals for Prevention Point, our major harm reduction organization here in Philadelphia. I might look into if they are still accepting such donations. I don’t really have any money now, but I imagine I could raise some to occasionally donate healthy meals to those who receive services at Prevention Point. Bringing the healing magic of the cuisine of the Holy Land to people who are truly suffering in my city seems like a good use of time and energy.

It’s hard these days to watch my friends say they will cut off their friends who hold different political viewpoints. Many claim it is in the name of LGBT rights. I have always been a strong supporter of LGBT rights, and spent a great deal of time with the trans community in West Philly while working on my MPH thesis, which was on the experience of LGBT people in 12 Step rehab. I do wish they would consider that pushing things like transwomen in women’s sports pushes away the majority of Americans. I also hear from some trans friends that as the more radical trans agenda has been more visible, life has become harder, not easier, for ordinary trans people who just want to live in their new body and be left alone. “I transitioned to be a woman, not to be trans,” said one of my closest friends.

When people post things like, “If you don’t support my friends’ rights, you’re not my friend,” I have to hold myself back from commenting, “You said nothing about October 7. You have advocated for the destruction of the State of Israel or just ignored the whole thing. Actual people were raped, murdered and tortured, actual people who are my friends and my friends’ families, and you didn’t care or blamed the victims. But I didn’t cut you off.”

Meltdowns about what might happen, but no ripple about what has happened. Europe is exploding with antisemitism and most of my liberal friends can’t be bothered.

I have long predicted that if we do not start to stand against it, it won’t be long before we see serious domestic terrorism. People who have come under the influence of pro-Hamas operatives and broken the law with impunity will only be emboldened until someone enforces the law. If you play the tape forward, this ends in our own citizens wearing suicide vests.

While that might make for a great HBO series, it’s not what I want to see in my cities.

My friends who now threaten to cut off contact with anyone who did not vote the way they did, for the most part, have shown no concern whatsoever about my friends. Or me and the hundreds of thousands of Americans who actually suffer when grocery prices go up and we can’t afford eggs.

I hope they do not cut off dialogue. I wish a respected figure in the Democratic Party would address this madness and tell their followers that this kind of behavior only drives more people away. But as is becoming traditional, silence from those who are supposed to be the adults.

Meanwhile, I hope that Governor Shapiro is planning his 2028 strategy. I’m available to consult as someone with a good ear to the ground of what Americans of all different backgrounds are saying when they have no reason to lie.

And I hope he gets a cat.