Do No Harm: The Evolution of Harm Reduction in Nightlife Culture

Consumption is a fundamental aspect of nightlife culture. Food and entertainment are two of the main lures that attract patrons into bars and clubs, but the use of alcohol and other drugs plays a role as well. The use of any intoxicant carries risk of overconsumption and responsible venue owners, city planners and public health departments work together to reduce that harm. 

However, with the case of illegal drugs, venue owners are often unable to address these harms because they are afraid to address the consumption itself.  Nightlife regulatory policies, reflective of this country’s prohibition-based War on Drugs policies, make it impossible to admit drug use occurs in nightlife venues without risk of police scrutiny, fines or closure. In this case, it is not just the over consumption of illegal drugs but the policies themselves that cause harm.   

The struggle to reduce the harms of drug use as well as ineffective drug policies is being led by the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). Over the years, DPA has worked on the legislative and policy level to develop alternatives to destructive drug war policies. By working with high profile supporters like Russell Simmons, Arianna Huffington and Sting and creating programs that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights, DPA has promoted change on local, state and national levels. Thanks to the work of advocates at DPA like Stefanie Jones, nightlife is becoming the next arena for education and change with three upcoming events:

1)    Ms. Jones and Dr. Brenda Miller will be conducting a webinar with the Responsible Hospitality Institute at 4:00 pm on Tuesday, March 26^th to discuss various aspects of harm reduction in nightlife including patron education and amnesty bin programs that allow patrons to surrender illegal substances when discovered in a search instead of being arrested.  The goal of the webinar is to foster a less antagonistic relationship between patrons, police and club owners in relation to alcohol and other drug use.

2)    DPA, in cooperation with the Columbia University Students for Sensible Drug Policy will be hosting a free panel discussion at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, March 27^th entitled The Truth About Molly that aims to dispel the mythology about a drug that is becoming more popular in urban culture and entertainment.

3)    Finally, DPA is working with organizations like Dance Safe and the San Francisco Entertainment Commission to produce a three day conference called Club Health San Francisco 2013 from May 28-30. The Club Health conference will bring together experts from around the world to discuss increasing harm reduction, decreasing violence and improving the safety of nightlife culture across the board.

The relationship between alcohol and other drug consumption and nightlife culture is diverse and complicated. Each sub culture faces different challenges associated with the different substances found in each setting. It will take a substantial amount of effort and political will to alter the impact of over consumption and misguided policies, but the events that DPA is hosting and the focus of people like Ms. Jones builds a solid foundation for expanding harm reduction practices and bringing the potential for policy change to nightlife culture. 

Dealing with Drunks Part II: Your Friends

In part 1  of our guide to dealing with drunks, we gave you tips on how to handle intoxicated strangers. Now let’s get to a more delicate subject; dealing with your drunken friends.

When your friend, date, client or family member is the drunk, it’s rude to just hand them over to the bouncer and keep on drinking like we did in part 1. It is a major undertaking to save your personal drunk from himself. Shepherding a drunken companion is a sign of true friendship, but if everything turns out ok, it is also great ammunition for funny stories later. 

Once you look over at your friend and realize they need help, focus on controlling their consumption, shielding them from danger and monitoring them for more serious conditions. 

Controlling Their Consumption:

The first thing your drunken friend probably wants is another drink. This is a bad idea, but as we saw earlier, logic is not the strong suit of a drunk person. Wikihow offers some suggestions on how to give them drinks without giving them drinks: If they demand another drink, try to give them harmless drinks. Try water, a very watered down version of their drink or just a soft drink. Depending on how drunk they are, you can simply hand them a coke and claim that it contains vodka. Unless they have very sensitive drunken palettes, they might not notice, especially if you're distracting them (hint: distracting a drunk is normally easier than distracting a sober person.) Don't give them a lot of stimulating drinks such as tea or coffee since this can accelerate dehydration. Don't force a drunk person to eat, since it could create a choking situation.

Shielding Them from Danger:

Your friend needs protection when he is drunk because he can’t do it himself. First, you need to make sure he doesn’t engage in risky behavior including driving a car, fighting with other people or trying to make out with random individuals. Do your best to help your drunk avoid physical injury, especially through falling. Nicole John is the most extreme example of this hazard, but even a fall on the dance floor can be dangerous. Help them find and stay in a safe seat or even sit them the floor. It’s not the cutest look, but they can’t fall very far if they are already on the floor. 

If your drunk needs to visit the bathroom, accompany them and wait for them to make sure they don’t slip and bang their head on the toilet. Above all, don’t leave them alone to sleep it off in any venue. They could be molested, robbed or snatched from the venue by a stranger.

If it is possible, try to deal with your drunk’s personal effects after your drunk is safe. Make an effort to find their phone, make sure their tab is closed and collect whatever clothing or accessories they discarded in their travels.

While you are looking out for your drunk, don’t forget to look out for yourself. Avoid saying anything that could provoke or anger the intoxicated person, since you don’t want to fight with the person you are trying to help. Do not try to physically lift a drunken person or stop someone much larger than you falling down–you may injure your back. Instead, concentrate on protecting their head. If you need help to help your drunk, look for security. It might be embarrassing for your drunk, but it is better to ask them for help than to have them kick you out when your drunk gets out of hand. Besides, a little embarrassment is a small price to pay to avoid more long term problems. 

The final step in shielding your drunk from danger is getting them out of the venue and back to a place where they can safely wait for their hangover to arrive. That could be their place, your place or any place where they can crash. Your social relationship might prevent you from monitoring them after they leave the venue, but in extreme cases it is advisable to keep an eye on them.

Monitoring Them for Serious Conditions:

Once you make sure your drunk isn’t continuing to drink, fighting with the bouncers or sleeping in the street, you have to make sure they are resting safely. It helps to lie them down in a recovery position (on their side with the higher knee bent) to prevent choking. Put something behind their back to prevent them rolling onto their back or stomach because vomiting in either position can cause them to choke or drown. Just because Jimi Hendrix did it doesn’t make it cool. 

As they sleep, look for signs of alcohol poisoning including: 
● abnormally slow breathing 
● unresponsive to being prodded and pinched firmly
● blue lips and fingertips 
● rapid pulse 
● vomiting while asleep and not waking up even when vomiting 
● cold clammy hands/ feet

If your friend starts to exhibit these symptoms, then it is time for you to stop helping them and time for medical professionals to start. Call 911. High levels of alcohol poisoning can lead to respiratory failure, coma or death.

NCI is offering these tips with the understanding that it is not medical advice. Hopefully these tips can help you and your drunk get through the night so everyone can live to drink another day. 

Have fun.
G

Going Out at Night: Is It Worth All the Trouble?

It is a question that haunts the jaded nightlife native every time the sun goes down, whenever they struggle to get up the energy to negotiate the tough door or check out the next next big thing. After a certain period of time, does even the luster of New York nightlife loose its appeal? Is it better to just save your money and your liver for some other activity?

The easy answer to these questions is no. In fact, New York nightlife offers us constant appeal, depending on how we use it.

The Reasons to Stay Home

I am currently writing a nightlife safety guide to offer some advice to people who want to enjoy going out and still make it home in one piece. I was aware of certain nightlife hazards before, but conducting the research and doing the interviews for this project has exposed me to a longer list of problems than I originally anticipated. In short, any given night could have:

• Dangerous elements include sexual assault, theft, accidents, fights, drink spiking, alcohol poisoning and other issues.
• Detrimental elements including the loss of physical ability due to everything from lack of sleep to alcohol overconsumption to weight gain to physical injury
• Expensive elements because depending on where you go and what you have to pay for, a night out could include paying for drinks, covers, clothing, personal grooming and transportation
• Restrictive elements because not every person can get into every place. You could plan all week long to check out the latest venue and then spend your whole night outside the place standing on line. 

When faced with all these potential hassles, sitting on the couch and live tweeting your favorite TV show makes a lot more sense, right?

Wrong.

The Reasons to Go Out

The two fundamental benefits we can attain from New York nightlife that make all the challenges worthwhile are connection and experience. With connection, we can establish and build relationships with our friends, colleagues, and new people in our social circles in ways that are qualitatively different than the bonds we create at work, school or an online connection. With experience, we can drink, dance, look, listen, laugh and love in ways that can create memories to last us all our lives. When we combine those unique experiences with the people that we share them with, the result is more than a few hours at a bar. It can be what you look forward to all week. It can be the attraction of that potential that drew you to New York in the first place. It can be part of the reason you live in New York at all.  When you consider it in that light, every night you spend on the couch is a wasted opportunity.

The Key to Your Nightlife

So how do ensure that your nights are memorable experiences and not expensive chores? I have always found that individual exploration keeps nightlife from settling into a dull routine. Find the venues and the people that you enjoy being around instead of trying to follow the crowd. Get outside your comfort zone and find new music, new encounters and new aspects of yourself to keep things from getting stale. If you’re going out to do the same thing every night and you don’t even enjoy it, then going out isn’t worth the hassle. But New York nightlife is more than an expensive drink at an exclusive club once you find your own place and your own pace.

Have fun.
Gamal