"Janice" - MACRO-B Participant Story and Excerpts

From the MACRO-B interviews collected between Spring 2023 and Spring 2024.

Janice is a Black woman in recovery from crack use. She was in active use for at least 30 years and, as of the interview, was in recovery for five years. She recalled moments in her active use when people would try to reduce harm by communicating about where bad supplies were coming from and putting people in cold water if they overdosed. She explained how people would call paramedics as a last resort, noting the time it would take for anyone to make the call, the process of preparing to do so by having people leave and hide their equipment, and how this delay led to people losing their lives. She also recognized how mistrust and fear are part of this, since cops usually come when 911 is called, even if it is for a medical event.

Janice has since used her lived experience and insight to educate her community. She has been working in harm reduction, including passing out naloxone and educating people about how to handle an overdose.

Interviewer: Do you, um, some people feel afraid to call the EMS or call the police?

Janice: Yes. Because even though you tell them that they won't get in trouble, just call, they...feel that that's not so because of the law, you know, because they know they doing something they ain't got no business doing. And they know that, you know, when they get there, they nine times outta 10, they gonna want the instrument, they gonna want the...what If it's some dope still left, they gonna want that. And so if it's still instrument and still dope there, then they think it'll probable cause they probably get arrested, you know, because of the, um, paraphernalias and you know, and the dope And so it is a, it is a trust issue.

Even though you say we look, we, we, we got an epidemic. People on the please call the people, well you're not gonna get in trouble. You know, they not, they scared. They scared, you know, because who knows, you might be in a spot where they've been under surveillance for months and you giving them the evidence that that's definitely a dope spot. 

The interviewer noted the "treatment first" approach of some police departments and asked Janice if she noticed this in her area.

Janice: You know, it depends on the area you in that, that the type of officer, you know, cause a lot of officers don't wanna see people messed up and they do ask, you know, they'll stop and see if you okay. You know, but then you got some that just, you know, you don't wanna fool with. They strictly, just strictly in they mind that this is how it's gonna be. I ain't giving you a chance. And you know, so that, that makes it hard for people to call the law because you don't know what, what type of person you're gonna get. Because I done had some law enforcement and it wasn't even in, it wasn't even about substance abuse, it was about some other issues. And they was talking to me crazy. And I'm like, wait a minute. I called you, why you talking to me like this? 

Towards the end of this excerpt, Janice explained her own attempt to call for her son, who was experiencing a mental health crisis. She related this to race - the officer was a White man. She shared that the officer accused her of lying to him and the fear she felt for her son based on the way the officer was treating him.