Giving Compass' Take:

• Travis Lupick reports that people addicted to opioids and other substances are organizing a national movement to demand a say in drug-policy reform.

• How is philanthropy helping to fight the War on Drugs? What else can be done? Are we close to an end?

• Here’s more on the War on Drugs and how we are tackling drug-related deaths.

Like so many activists, Jess Tilley discovered grassroots organizing through personal hardship. In 1997, she was living in Northampton, Massachusetts, regularly injecting heroin. A limited access to clean needles led her to reuse dulled equipment, and she developed an abscess.

Through friends, Tilley learned of a program where users could get free new syringes — no questions asked. At Tapestry Needle Exchange, she also discovered a community of people eager to improve their lives and the lives of others addicted to drugs.

“We started talking about the mistreatment we received in emergency rooms,” Jess remembers. “I told them, ‘We need to advocate for ourselves. They might not listen to just me, but if all of us share our experiences, maybe someone will listen to us.’”

Twenty years would go by before attempts to organize drug users would help to ignite a national movement. Last month, Tilley was among more than 50 active users from across the country who traveled to St. Louis for a first-of-its-kind meeting to lay the groundwork for a coordinated response to America’s war on drugs.

Read the full article about the war on drugs by Travis Lupick at YES! Magazine.