Jonathan Kirkpatrick & Kastalia Medrano

Jonathan covers harm reduction and re-entry. He’s incarcerated at Washington Corrections Center, where he’s a Teacher’s Assistant for re-entry workshops and trains peer educators in HIV and hepatitis C harm reduction. His Washington State Department of Corrections job is crafting quilts out of recycled materials to donate to nonprofits for fundraising. His writing has been published by the AppealTruthoutJewish Currents and the Seattle Journal of Social Justice. His ID number in WDOC is #716850, and until WDOC corrects a 28-year-old paperwork error his name in Securus is “Jonathon.”

 

Kastalia is Filter‘s deputy editor. She previously worked at a number of other media outlets and wouldn’t recommend the drug coverage at any of them. When not at Filter, she works with drug users in NYC and drug checkers in North Carolina to track hyperlocal supply changes, and cohosts a national stimulant users call with Isaac Jackson. She uses meth daily and other drugs sometimes.

If You’re a Cop, There Are Better Ways for You to Use Narcan

As the overdose crisis escalates, so do law enforcement's misconceptions about Narcan, the nasal-spray formulation of the opioid-overdose antidote naloxone.…

March 12, 2024

Media Never Changed Its 1970s PCP Propaganda, Just Repurposed It

In 1927, a family in Mexico City ate cannabis leaves by accident. The father had just been killed, and with…

October 10, 2023

Re-Entry Isn’t the Same as Recovery, No Matter What SAMHSA Thinks

A decade ago, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration determined that having two separate definitions of recovery—one for…

September 11, 2023

Harm Reduction Meets People Where They’re at, Unless They’re at a Prison

Harm reductionists on the outside often say the work happens in a legal gray area. That real harm reduction plays…

June 27, 2023