Tompkins County Public Library will welcome New York Times bestselling author Maia Szalavitz on Saturday, April 19 to speak about her book, “Undoing Drugs: How Harm Reduction is Changing the Future of Drugs and Addiction.” The appearance will include time for a question-and-answer session and a book signing.

“Undoing Drugs” sheds light on the power and history of the harm reduction movement and makes an argument for harm reduction-based policy as a path forward.

MindSite News author Julia Landau called the book, “An author’s call to drop our moralistic blinders and save lives,” adding, “Szalavitz gets readers to imagine the pain we could have been spared if we strained the moral judgments out of our approach to addiction and simply tried to keep people alive.”

In Practical Recovery, A. Tom Horvath, PhD called Szalavitz, “A leading author and journalist about addiction, science, and public policy.”

In “Undoing Drugs,” Szalavitz traces the roots of the harm reduction movement to the early days of the HIV and AIDS epidemic, the risks of sharing needles, and her own struggles with heroin and cocaine at the time.

The book makes the case that radical empathy is at the core of harm reduction.

“The basic idea is that regardless of whether people continue to use illegal drugs or engage in other problematic behaviors, their lives have value,” Szalavitz writes.

“Undoing Drugs” is the seventh book Szalavitz has authored or co-authored. Her previous work, “Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction” was a New York Times bestseller and won the 2018 media award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Szalavitz will speak in TCPL’s BorgWarner Community Room from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 19. The event is free to attend, and the Library has 25 copies of “Undoing Drugs” available on a first-come, first-served basis. Szalavitz’s appearance is part of the Library’s Information Saves Lives Project, which is funded by a grant from the Tompkins County Opioid Task Force as well as an anonymous donation to the Tompkins County Public Library Foundation.

The Information Saves Lives Project also includes a free NARCAN vending machine inside the Library, as well as recurring free hands-on programs for the community.

• Meditation and Mindfulness sessions with Anna Salamone of FireFly Farm Retreat are held on the first Tuesday of every month at 5:00 p.m.
• NARCAN training sessions with the REACH Project are held on the first Thursday of every month at 4:00 p.m.

TCPL Library Assistant Sasha Raffloer, project manager for Information Saves Lives, calls the message of harm reduction critical in the ongoing fight against the opioid crisis.

“There are many ways that people find themselves struggling with addiction,” Raffloer said. “But whether they were prescribed opioids by a doctor or experimented with illegal opioids does not change the inherent value of any person. Everyone deserves compassion and support.”

You can learn more about the Information Saves Lives program and find local opioid and addiction resources at https://www.tcpl.org/information-saves-lives-patron-faqs. 

Special thanks to Canopy by Hilton Ithaca Downtown for providing accommodations for Szalavitz’s visit.