Morgan Godvin
@MorganGodvin
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measure 110 councilmember | drug policy and overdose researcher | former prisoner | justice + health @HiJAction | harm redux @beatsoverdose | veterans | she 🌈
Portland, OR
Joined February 2018
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I showed up to court with a letter from my doctor, my prescription, and my medication. Bravely—naively—I asked to be taken into custody, thinking jail would save me. I was wrong.
@MarshallProj
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I was in prison with moms who didn’t have anyone to care for their kids during their sentence. Their parental rights were permanently revoked, which is the most cruel and permanent collateral consequence that exists.
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Drug decrim means people who use drugs will never go to jail just for using/possessing drugs.
10 years ago this month, I was a full-time paramedic student on the dean’s list, working at Domino’s Pizza, earning income and military education benefits. I was addicted to heroin.🧵
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I made $5.25 per month in federal prison. One 15-minute phone call costs $3.15.
#HappyLaborDay
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I sold a gram of heroin to one of my closest friends, at his urging, so he wouldn’t be dopesick for work the next day.
I was then tossed into the federal prison system with a sentence of 60 months. Sexual abuse was rampant, indignity was the norm. They called it justice.
“From 2014 to 2018, 35 women at Carswell [federal women’s prison] reported they were sexually assaulted by a staff member.”
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I touched fentanyl and didn’t even get high, much less overdose. DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE.
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Counterfeit adderall, which is meth pressed into pill form, was already on the scene, catering to folks who can’t or won’t get legitimate prescriptions.
Now folks with legitimate prescriptions can’t get their adderall.
Oxy taught us what happens next. It’s not good.
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Providence hospital in Portland discharged a man and then said he, “didn’t want to leave,” and then called the police. Body cam footage shows him in and out of consciousness, not “noncompliant.”
He died in Milwaukee police custody on the way to Unity.
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Because of my criminal record, I cannot hire a babysitter. The collateral consequences just keep coming.
Do my seven year old drug arrests warrant this action? Is preventing parents in recovery from accessing vetted childcare good public policy?
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Harm reduction saved my life. Years into recovery, I never forgot the kindness of Haven Wheelock.
My family had forced me into treatment twice, only for me to relapse and OD.
I walked into the syringe exchange scared and alone. I’d had a hep c exposure. 1/
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I was living out of my car and had to pay probation and court fees just to not go back to jail.
Predictably, my criminality increased. I did things I’d sworn I’d never do.
Not because of my addiction is isolation but because of the government’s criminalized response to it./
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Addiction, which is so often a trauma response, should never be met with the trauma that is our criminal justice system.
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Drug decriminalization restores sanity and basic logic to the system. Drug possession—a consensual act of an autonomous person—is no longer a crime.
Making people worse does not make them better. /
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I went from being a housed and employed student with a drug problem to a houseless and flat broke full-time addict with two felonies no hope for my future.
In jail, I’d met all sorts of new friends. It was first exposure to the broader criminal underworld. /
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It meant I was facing an even harsher sentence for being a repeat offender. My criminal history was evidence of addiction. Not crime.
But under drug criminalization, there is no distinction. Possession is crime, crime is possession. /
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Drug criminalization was never about helping people. It is about power and control. Though police broadly recognize the futility of drug arrests, they vociferously oppose drug decrim. Why? Power and control. /
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Under drug decriminalization, the only thing that is no longer a crime is drug possession.
If you commit actual crime, drug-related or not, it’s still a crime.
The conflation of drug decrim with decriminalizing theft is intentional misinformation that reinforces the drug war./
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The high crime I had committed? Possession of one gram of heroin, bought with tip money from my delivery shift.
Within the year, I’d be arrested five times and jailed three, all for possession. I withdrew from my college classes and after my second time in jail, I got fired. /
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What happened to me and millions of others, disproportionately Black, Brown, and Indigenous and/or poor, should never happen to anyone ever again.
And in Oregon, it won’t. Drug possession is decriminalized. Crime is crime. Drug possession is not.
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I turned myself in with a letter from my doctor and my medicine.
Instead of giving me my suboxone, they watched me writhe in pain for a week. You see, jails don’t even provide the bare minimum of opioid use disorder treatment, much less the gold standard of buprenorphine./
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Do you know what it feels like to face steeper penalties for using and middle manning drugs than you would for prolific boosting, even when your moral compass tells you one is a consensual transaction and one is true societal harm? /
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Drug decriminalization does not reform or even impact how a justice system handles actual crime, drug-related or not.
These are wholly separate conversations./
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During my first arrest, you can still see my red Domino’s uniform shirt on in my mugshot.
I’d seen friends turn to theft to support their habits. I didn’t have the stomach for it. (Or the necessity, perhaps.) I had legal income.
I ended up in jail that night all the same./
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Within a few more months, someone I met in jail became my federal codefendant.
In court, US Government vs. Morgan Godvin, I was a criminal history category III for the two possession felonies (one gram, one “residue” on a bag) and being on probation for them. /
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I support a drug court model for repeat property offenders. Addiction should never be a free pass to be able to commit societal harm.
When people have better options, they make better choices. If despite those better options, they continue to harm, they must be held accountable.
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So many women had families where every member had felonies that made them ineligible to become legal caregivers, per CPS rules.
My friend had been undocumented and couldn’t find anyone to present to Texas CPS to take her kids. She lost them forever.
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8 years ago right around now, I got a text from Justin asking if I could sell him another gram. Except it wasn’t him, it was the police pretending to be my dead best friend.
But that’s how they got a warrant.
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I “volunteered” for drug court. My first time spending a night in jail, I asked for it.
I couldn’t get a felony. It would dash my dreams of becoming a paramedic, relegate my college credits to obsolescence. I wanted free will out of the equation.
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My first arrest occurred the Friday before MLK Day. The cop gloated that I’d sit in jail dopesick awaiting arraignment for 4 days. He used that (lie) to try to get me to snitch.
After getting booked, I was immediately released on my own recognizance. I was in my WORK UNIFORM./
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A sentence for any crime, no matter how minor, can trigger the permanent loss of parental rights. Its a fate worse than death for many moms I met, and they mostly did not do well after release because of the trauma and grief.
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Harm reduction is not at odds with treatment. But it is the one, single space where I could just *be.* Where I wasn’t being bombarded with signals about how bad I was, how I needed to change. As if I didn’t already know. As if I hadn’t already tried. 5/
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“Decriminalizing drugs is synonymous with anarchy, as long as someone committed the crime to fuel their addiction, they get a pass!” scream the reactionaries.
They know this is false but it makes White America quake in their boots + oppose decrim when they otherwise wouldn’t./
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SHE WAS NATIVE AMERICAN. SHE WAS 30. SHE WAS IN FEDERAL PRISON BECAUSE SHE LIVED ON A RESERVATION. SHE WAS PREGNANT. SHE DIED A PREVENTABLE DEATH. *this is institutional racism*
BOP reports first death of female prisoner in the coronavirus outbreak.
Andrea Circle Bear, 30, was pregnant and had just gone to prison on a 2-year drug sentence. Her baby survived.
It's the first death at FMC Carswell and the 30th overall in the federal system.
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At FCI Dublin, where I was sent, 8 correctional officers have now been charged with sex abuse.
The warden.
The chaplain.
They wore US government uniforms with an American flag patch on their shoulder, the physical embodiment of US justice.
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Car thefts are at record highs, many businesses have plywood instead of glass windows after one too many break ins. This is a public safety issue. It is complex and multi-factorial.
At least police aren’t wasting their scarce resources on drug arrests anymore, amirite?
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@GeauxGabrielle
This is so good, and wow yeah that’s a narrow type! (I feel less bad about mine, it’s nowhere near this level of specific.)
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Harm reduction isn't glorifying drug use. It's humanizing people.
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@degen_holdings
Actually, the cops did the right thing and were taking him to Unity, another hospital but for behavioral health.
The point is that he was so medically frail he was on the verge of death and the hospital discharged him, chalking up his symptoms to “failure to thrive” which they…
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Harm reductionists were kind to me when no one else was, least of whom myself. There was no prodding or coercion, only compassion.
The world is cruel enough, believe me. Addiction is cruel enough, I assure you. 8/
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Prison is a fundamentally different experience for those with privilege. Money eases suffering and *preserves parenthood*.
In this piece, I wrote about my friend "Marie" who lost her children and how cruel Texas authorities were when I tried to help.
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There are issues with policing and enforcement. Portland is a perfect example.
Police staffing levels are low, police are perhaps both stretched too thing *and* foot dragging to oppose progressive reforms.
There’s no PDs. Serious crimes get dismissed outright./
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My friend Justin died off of heroin I sold him. I faced 20 years in prison for "delivery resulting in death." In this piece I explain why laws treating overdose as homicide are bad policy that perpetuate misery and don't reduce overdoses.
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I filed my taxes yesterday. Because I have a drug felony, I'm disqualified for life from the American Opportunity Tax Credit, of which $1,000 is refundable and would have gone straight to my education. People that need MORE help get barriers instead.
#thedrugwar
#taxes
#reform
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Haven told me I was Hep C negative. From then on, I accessed syringe exchange services instead of buying cleans from pharmacies only when I could afford it. Because I’d found, finally, one single safe space in all the world.
A refuge. 6/
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@aspic124
His my mom testified on my behalf. We work together in opposition to drug-induced homicide laws that treat accidental overdoses as murder.
They called her son a criminal. She watched them drag him away in handcuffs time and again.
Only upon his death did they value his life.
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Harm reduction is imperative for recovery, not opposed to it. People that see themselves and worthy of nothing more than disgust are not apt to struggle and suffer. And trust me, breaking up with your only coping mechanism is little more than struggle and suffering./end
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But Haven just said, “How are you? What do you need?”
I needed a Hep C test and sterile syringes. That’s exactly what I got.
“Who are these crazy people that are nice to us junkies?” I would ask my friend later. 4/
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In federal prison, they'll ship you anywhere. You could be across the country from where you live and caught your case.
They'll make no effort for you to show up for your family court hearings, of course. All the moms could do was write desperate letters to their judges.
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Harm reduction service providers make up a tiny fraction of someone’s daily interactions. They get those brief moments of refuge.
Then they go back to the dirty looks, family shunning, police harassment, and misery. 7/
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Except, for *once* someone who knew my whole truth—I am injection drug user—didn’t reflect that idea back at me.
There was just kindness and genuine compassion. For me, at my worst.
It was a jarring experience. Every other signal from society was “you’re worthless garbage.”/
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Who are these crazy people that are kind to people who use drugs? People who get it. Whether because they have lived it or otherwise seen it up close, they know that those moments of refuge are the only thing holding back the total descent into darkness and despair. /9
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@DMcDRecovery
But also “not thriving” which is gobbledygook medical speak for “not doing well, physically, for reasons we don’t know.”
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Then Haven became the chief petitioner for drug decrim, which passed. Now, I serve on the Oversight and Accountability Council implementing the services component. I sat in the audience during her presentation at
#HarmRed22
, never forgetting that day at the syringe exchange.
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I’ve been in Lisbon for all of 12 hours and have the most obvious answer for you: people don’t use drugs in public because they have private spaces instead.
There simply isn’t visible homelessness. The people are HOUSED.
90% of what you hurl at drug policy is in fact housing./
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I used IV opioids yesterday. Today, I’m okay. No less valuable than I was yesterday. No arbitrary day count to start over, no doubts about the security of my recovery as I define it. Interestingly, no cravings or desire for more.
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I never did get hep c! Because I lived in Portland and could access syringes relatively easily.
Do you know what I couldn't access? Medications for OUD! Despite going to treatment and detox repeatedly, not once was I ever offered buprenorphine maintenance.
Until years later.
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She didn’t say, “but don’t you want to go to treatment?!” I’d been down that road and learned I was a hopeless case. (What forced treatment + 12-step does to us.)
I would’ve spun on my heels. I knew then that I was a junkie piece of shit who would die in my addiction. It’s ok.2/
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I called myself a junkie during my use. As is the point of a pejorative, it’s a label hurled against me that I then internalized, reclaimed. It swelled until it enveloped my whole being.
It was the one facet of my identity I did “correctly.”
Don’t try to sanitize my experience.
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Their prison sentence never includes a condition "also your parental rights are being revoked." The judge just sentences them to prison.
Then a different court deals with custody. A 1997 federal law created these awful results.
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I lost a decade to addiction and incarceration. I have 3 felonies. It took me 15 years from my first college credit to my last to get a Bachelors.
I was accepted into Yale, Harvard, Columbia and more. I rejected them and am instead doing a PhD at UCSD/SDSU.
How things change.
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Weed will disqualify you from:
-The Olympics
-Federal jobs
-Federally regulated jobs
-The military
-Law enforcement
Alcohol will disqualify you from:
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She took so many college classes that the lazy education staff didn't want to proctor all her final exams. "Take fewer classes," he told her.
I'd never seen anyone more dedicated to creating a better life for herself.
It didn't matter. Losing her kids was the end for her.
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Prison is boredom punctuated by senseless cruelties.
A cruelty that haunts me didn’t even happen to me, or to any person. The thing that haunts me is what they did a tree. 1/
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My friend overdosed and died after doing cocaine. Fentanyl, again.
Drug prohibition is killing off my generation, almost like it’s intentional. A dozen or so of my friends are dead. We’re ~30 years old.
F*ck your War on Drugs.
Safe supply now.
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My urine is negative for fentanyl several hours later. I used hand sanitizer but forgot to wash my hands even. This is how you science.
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Incarcerated people pay taxes indirectly because they are forced to purchase their basic necessities and pay high rates for calls and communications. Incarcerated people don't stop being citizens. So yes, they should get the stimulus. And yes, they should be able to vote.
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When I tell you that literally no one was in federal prison for possessing weed, believe me.
Did people violate their supervised release for smoking weed? Maybe! Were people in for large scale distribution or growing? Yes, definitely!
Possession? Nope.
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Drug criminalization means the system strips you naked, tosses you in a jail cell to withdraw cold turkey in agony, gives you a criminal conviction that impacts your ability to find work + housing for decades, and does it all while screaming “IT’S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!”
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Temporary demand changes can permanently shift supply which can further alter demand. Once the market dynamics are unleashed, there’s no undoing it.
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Old medications were found in a pharmacy, 28-40 years past their expiration dates. The vast majority retained greater than 90% potency. (They found a quaalude!)
Drug expiration dates are a sham.
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Police were literally taught to react like that to fentanyl. Different training promotes a different belief among officers, one rooted in science.
@BrandondelPozo
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If you’re so mad about public defecation maybe install public toilets instead of re-criminalizing drugs, since that won’t even address the damn problem.
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I'm honored to bring you this essay from the currently incarcerated editor of The Nash News, the indomitable Phil Smith. His work and his story are incredible, read about both in his own words.
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"Marie" is from Nayarit but got deported to Tijuana. She stayed there on the border "to be closer to her boys." She'll never see them again. In 2020, she got pregnant but her partner died before she gave birth. Mexican poverty. I'm going to visit her later this month. Send $?
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Another friend, a US citizen from California, had both of her children permanently removed from her. Her parents and the children's father were also incarcerated on the same case.
She had a new baby last year! It weight one pound when it was born. Trauma.
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It takes 38 days of full-time work in the Indiana women’s prison to afford a bra.
#LaborDay
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7 years ago today, I was arrested by US Marshals for the death of my friend.
He died of an accidental overdose. I wasn’t there with him. But I sold him the heroin so the US government said I killed him. thread/
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This tweet went viral! Today, I am proud to announce I’ve built an entire career on the fact I used to be addicted and then went to prison.
I’m the engagement editor over the American Prison Newspapers collection. 200+ years of prison and history. 👀
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@SeanPhi75778246
Yes, it has totally revamped “probable cause” for searches and this is a natural extension of that.
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Free phone calls for everyone in jail and prison forever.
Social support reduces recidivism.
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A note on decrim as it slips away, shattering my heart:
To all the leftists and progressives in Portland who spent more time bickering over semantics, whether it’s substance use disorder or addiction or problematic drug use, I hope you’re pleased. 1/
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Merry Christmas from
@kroger
, who put this sign up over the holidays during a blizzard, right where unhoused folks usually are.
“The majority of your change goes to drugs and alcohol,” complains a corporation that sells both.
Columbus, OH. Brewery District/German Village.
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In jail, I met women who were survivors of sexual assault, women who were sex workers, and women who were charged with sex trafficking.
Often, it was the same woman. They called her criminal all the same.
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Together, we’ve served 69 years in prison. Today, we’re free and living profoundly different lives.
@keribla
and crew.
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We don’t arrest people for drinking alcohol. We arrest them when they choose to drive after drinking alcohol.
Why should drugs be any different? Arrest people for the crimes they commit, not for the fact they’re addicted.
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4 years ago today, my 60-month prison sentence ended. What a wild ride it has been.
I can’t even count the amount of things I’ve done that people told me I’d never be able to with a felony. 1/2
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I enrolled at
@Portland_State
while still in prison, my friend Ian (pictured) pretending to be me online.
Nearly 4 years in custody and not a single opportunity for college credit.
3.5 years after my release, this happened.
Summa Cum Laude, Honors College + a double major.
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@ryannerocha
This is why I’ve dedicated my life to overdose prevention. And I’m losing the battle.
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Permitting discrimination as long as it’s based on arrests or convictions (regardless of relevance, time, or context) is unequivocally public policy.
Therefore, it’s something that can be fixed.
Drug possession is no longer an arrestable offense in Oregon—we fixed the policy.
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A correctional officer cared for an incarcerated woman's newborn baby for 2 months until her release, gets fired.
We've created a system where humanity and acts of kindness are punished.
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Brazil has strict child support laws. If the man goes to prison, the State assumes the responsibility to pay their child support.
When I made a shocked face, the Brazilian telling me this said, “Why would you punish the child for their father’s mistakes?”
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Since fentanyl is trending it's a great time to remind everyone that:
-The risk to first responders overdosing on fentanyl through casual context is abysmally low.
-Naloxone is effective at reversing fentanyl overdoses.
-Illicit fentanyl is the result of drug prohibition.
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“I believed that he was going for a gun at this time, because I know that, from my training…” PPB Officer Sathoff told the grand jury.
A case of mistaken identity, the man was unarmed, but police training has convinced officers they’re at war with us.
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@Tribefan4192
@shaunking
I heard that destroying people's community ties and sending them out of prison poor and with a criminal record sets them up for success and reduces their chances of committing future crimes...
oh wait no... literally the opposite, it's terrible for public safety.
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10 years ago today, my mom died of a prescription opioid overdose. I found her unconscious, in the time before naloxone, and did CPR.
My phone was dead—I’d gone into her room to use her charger. I had to stop CPR to pound on the neighbors door at 2am, to use their phone, to…
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The Blues look real. They’re terrifying. No immediate indication they’re fake. If I found one on the ground, I would put “round blue M30” into Google and it would tell me oxycodone 30mg and I’d be none the wiser.
Very scary for people who don’t already know.
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