Trystereo New Orleans

If you'd like to donate materials to enable our work, please note we have suspended our Amazon.com Wish List in solidarity with workers striking. Please find items that are much-needed by participants in Trystereo’s program in the below wish lists. E-mail us to arrange shipping and other details.

We are taking our Amazon wish list offline for tomorrow and the 16th in solidarity with the Amazon workers strike. Alongside egregious and storied labor conditions, Amazon provides web services to hellish data company Palantir. Palantir provides intelligence fuel to ICE (not to mention also using New Orleans as a predictive policing petri dish).

Though Hurricane Barry (thankfully) did not impact the city with the magnitude that was feared, we have a whole lot of hurricane season ahead of us. All-volunteer Trystereo, supported by our partners with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, continues to provide safer drug-using, healthcare, hygiene, wound care, and disaster prep supplies through our city-wide hotline even through climate chaos.

Our Hurricane Response team stays through the threat of climate chaos because we know that storms like these are, by design, class violence and white supremacist violence. When systems fail (or even sputter, like in the days when the severity of climate threat is unclear), people who are routinely denied access to basic needs like healthcare, shelter, food, and human dignity are at the most risk. People who use drugs, people experiencing homelessness, people denied the right to evacuate during storms by their greedy bosses, people under regular attack by the police and ICE, Black and Brown and working class people, people with chronic illness -- climate disasters rapidly magnify the everyday disaster of life under capitalism for our friends, our neighbors, our communities.

We are trying to raise $10,000 to replenish our supplies depleted by rapid pre-Hurricane Barry outreach and to prepare for the rest of hurricane season. We've already cleared over 1/3rd of our goal which is WILD and thank you SO MUCH to each of you who've sent money, supplies, or words of encouragement.

So, in lieu of sending supplies through our wish list, please consider making a donation to Trystereo. Or shaking down the rich people in your life (or shaking down yourself, if you are said rich person).

Thanks for reading, click the link for how to donate and more information about Trystereo. Alright, good talk.

Post-Hurricane Barry Wish List

Syringes: 27g 1/2” 1cc, 28g 1/2” 1cc, 29g 1/2” 1cc, 30g 1/2” 1cc, or 30g 5/16” 1cc

Safer Smoking Kit Materials: glass pipes, rubber mouthpieces (Want to know more? Check out this post from Injection Drug Users Health Alliance)

Any packed kits, for example: single use, double use, wound care, and hygiene kits

Band aids

Blue tourniquets

Nutritious snacks (especially soft foods & Ensure)

Water bottles

Small size biohazard bins, like Fitpaks or 1-Quart Sharps Containers

Suggested Sources:

Safety Works Harm Reduction Items

Total Access Group Harm Reduction Supplies and In-Stock Kits

We're low on supplies after the last two days when we met up with more than 300 people, offering bulk supplies in preparation for inclement weather / bad conditions. Please help us mobilize additional resources for the response and recovery efforts to come. Here are the most effective ways to support us:

Donate by Check: Address check to the Dave Purchase Project with “New Orleans Trystereo” in the comments section.  Send check to 535 DOCK ST. # 112, TACOMA, WA 98402. This way we can order bulk, cheap supplies (and the “normal” type of supplies that participants like and expect) most easily!

Send us Donations: We need 27g 1/2” 1cc, 28g 1/2” 1cc, 29g 1/2” 1cc, 30g 1/2” 1cc, or 30g 5/16” 1cc, glass pipes, rubber mouthpieces, packed kits, Ensure/water bottles/nutritious snacks, and small size biohazard bins, like Fitpaks or 1-Quart Sharps Containers.

Most Saturdays we set up in Lower 9th Ward to meet with participants, a lot of them regulars, to check in and hand out supplies. Unfortunately, this Saturday we’re facing more than 80% chance of rain and almost 40 mph winds.

Our availability will continue, weather-permitting. We do not encourage travel during flash flood warnings or other inclement weather events.

Text the hotline to make a supply request.

If it is safe enough for us and for you, we will meet up.

We're low on supplies after the last two days when we met up with more than 300 people, offering bulk supplies in preparation for inclement weather / bad conditions. Please help us mobilize additional resources for the response and recovery efforts to come. Here are the most effective ways to support us:

Donate by Check: Address check to the Dave Purchase Project with “New Orleans Trystereo” in the comments section. Send check to 535 DOCK ST. # 112, TACOMA, WA 98402. This way we can order bulk, cheap supplies (and the “normal” type of supplies that participants like and expect) most easily!

Send us Donations: We need 27g 1/2” 1cc, 28g 1/2” 1cc, 29g 1/2” 1cc, 30g 1/2” 1cc, or 30g 5/16” 1cc, glass pipes, rubber mouthpieces, packed kits, Ensure/water bottles/nutritious snacks, and small size biohazard bins, like Fitpaks or 1-Quart Sharps Containers.

E-mail us to arrange shipping (Amtrak shipping is cheapest, or we can bill to our UPS account) and copy Mutual Aid Disaster Relief. Our partners at Mutual Aid Disaster Relief will be working closely with us to deliver resources to communities most impacted. If you can’t reach us (power is out/cell phone out/wifi is out), please reach them.

Stay updated on weather conditions:

Track TS Barry on the National Hurricane Center

In New Orleans, the effects of Tropical Storm Barry are expected to include rain, wind, tides and coastal flooding, and storm surge. The participants of Trystereo's harm reduction collective face extreme dangers due to housing instability, low cash resources, poor health outcomes, and other vulnerabilities. We're almost out of supplies! Please help us mobilize additional resources for the response and recovery efforts to come.

Our partners at Mutual Aid Disaster Relief compiled tips for preparing communities to take care of each other in the spirit of mutual aid when disaster strikes. We'll be working closely to deliver resources to communities most impacted.

Text the hotline to make a supply request. E-mail for other inquiries and if it is about donating supplies, CC: Mutual Aid Disaster Relief.

In New Orleans, the effects of Tropical Storm Barry are expected to include:

Rain: The National Weather Service expects the primary impact from this system to be heavy rain, with rainfall totals currently predicted in the eight- to 10-inch range in New Orleans through Monday. The greatest risk for heavy rainfall currently appears to be Friday and Saturday. A Flash Flood Watch is in effect until 7 a.m., Saturday, July 13.

Wind: Strong winds are also expected in squalls Friday and through the weekend. Wind strength will depend on track and development and the most likely arrival of tropical storm-force winds is Friday morning.

Tides and Coastal Flooding: Elevated tides are possible and coastal flooding may be a problem in some areas. Storm surges of 3 to 6 feet will be possible along the coast. A Storm Surge Watch is in effect for areas outside of the levee system in Orleans Parish, including Venetian Isles, Lake Catherine, and Irish Bayou.

Storm Surge: Effects of storm surge have the potential to increase the Mississippi River stage to 20 feet at the Carrollton Gauge on Saturday. The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Warning for the Mississippi River including the New Orleans area through Saturday, July 13.

Trystereo is currently offering safer drug use materials, overdose prevention kits, wound care kits, food, ponchos, and other supplies in bulk to people in New Orleans who are preparing for the Tropical Storm Barry.

Additional resources are being mobilized through our partnership with Mutual Aid Disaster Relief and other community members who respond to the crisis.

Text the hotline to make a supply request. E-mail for other inquiries.

Our availability is based on weather - we do not encourage travel during flash flood warnings or other inclement weather events. Stay updated on weather conditions:

Track TS Barry on the National Hurricane Center

The Opioid Workforce Act of 2019 passed the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday, June 26. This bipartisan bill is an important step to addressing the lack of access to resources for people who use drugs by increasing the number of trained doctors in addiction medicine, addiction psychiatry, or pain medicine.

Check out the bill on Congress.gov

Urge your representative to co-sponsor and support the passage of this bill

Find your representative here

Call or send a message, for example:

There is some dope being distributed in New Orleans that has tested positive for fentanyl and led to at least 3 overdoses, which were reversed with 1-2 doses of naloxone, this week. The dope cooked up dark reddish brown, and it looked like coffee.

BE PREPARED!

Use the buddy system or tell someone you’re using

Try a smaller amount than usual or sniff a little to get a sense of its strength

Avoid mixing drugs, which can increase your chance of overdose

Save a life with naloxone and rescue breathing (one breath every five seconds)

If calling 911, say “person is unresponsive” to avoid law enforcement at the scene

Today, June 26, 2019, is International Day of Action Against the War on Drugs

Support health and harm reduction instead of criminalization of the people we love. #SupportDon’tPunish

The Global Commission on Drug Policy released a report that says the international classification system for drug control is “biased and inconsistent,” and collateral damage of this policy includes the spread of infectious diseases, higher mortality and the global prison overcrowding crisis.

“The international system to classify drugs is at the core of the drug control regime – and unfortunately the core is rotten.”

- Ruth Dreifuss, former president of Switzerland and chair of the commission, which includes 14 former heads of states from countries such as Colombia, Mexico, Portugal and New Zealand.

In response to this ongoing catastrophic policy failure, Support. Don’t Punish Global Day of Action is being held across the world. Support.Don’t Punish raises the voices of advocates who call for humane, health-based approaches to drug policies. A key part of the Support. Don’t Punish campaign, the Photo project is an open, live and ever-growing photo petition with more than 10,000 entries.

Get the "health within the hustle" herbal medicine kits on Trystereo's hotline - come this afternoon or text us at 504-535-4766.

Access to adequate and dignified healthcare is often a struggle for those in the sex trade, particularly for those who work in the streets. The Health Within the Hustle kits bridge this gap by providing herbal remedies to address common health concerns of the industry and specific circumstances out on the streets. These healing justice kits were created based off of observations made and conversations had by folks doing direct street outreach with Trystereo and Women with a Vision and asking folks in the hustle directly about their healthcare needs. Over the course of the Spring, workshops were held for current and former sex workers to be part of the medicine making process. In a livelihood so often done in isolation and necessary secrecy, we came together to foster in person connections, to concoct, console, and co-conspire. Each medicinal formula contains the magic of having been touched by several sex workers' hands with a collective experience of over 35 years hustling in each bottle and tin. Healing is fierce and it is tender, it is saying we deserve better and we will better together. Healing is now, and has always been, strategic. Without healing we are at risk to keep reiterating the same structures we are trying to move away from, the exact structures that seek to alienate and divide us. When we find each other, we find health within the hustle.