COVID-19

Help yourself and those around you by staying informed on COVID-19 precautions and harm reduction.

What to Look Out For

SYMPTOMS OF WITHDRAWL AND COVID-19 ARE SIMILAR. Headache, fever, or muscle soreness may only be withdrawal symptoms, but can also possibly be COVID-19. If symptoms worsen and there’s consistent cough and loss of taste and smell, this may be COVID-19.

• Meth worsens YOUR ability to breathe
  • Using other drugs (cigarettes, vape, opioids, alcohol) in combination with meth can make it harder for you to breathe
  • Withdrawal can impair ability to breathe
  • Normally, drug users have poorer immune systems
  • COVID-19 will further worsen difficulties breathing

BEING AN AVID USER INCREASES YOUR LIKELIHOOD OF BECOMING SEVERELY ILL OR DYING FROM COVID-19

What Precautions Should You Take?

• If you feel sick, ISOLATE and AVOID spaces with people as best as you can
  • Tell your local addiction program that you might be sick
  • Try to get supplies delivered to you

• Prepare for sudden and involuntary withdrawal
  • You/your dealer/someone along the drug supply chain can get COVID-19
  • Stock up on medications, food, and drinks in case you get sick
    • Have protein and electrolyte-based drinks (Pedialyte, Ensure, Gatorade)
  • Prevent yourself from bingeing on your stock pile of drugs/alcohol
    • Manage use
    • If you have an alcohol use disorder drink 1 can of beer/1.5 ounces of a spirit/5 ounces of wine as needed (hourly)

Harm Reduction

These are some steps you can follow to lower your risk of COVID-19 infection:

1. Wash your hands
   • Wash hands with soap for at least 20 seconds vigorously and use paper towel afterwards. If you do not have soap, use any alcohol-based cleaner (towelettes, hand sanitizer)
2. Clean supplies and packages
   • Try to wipe down your packages and supplies with an alcohol-based cleaner as best as you can. If your supplier puts the drugs in their mouth or elsewhere, ask them to stop doing this
3. Don’t share supplies
   • Food, cutlery, pipes, bongs, needles, etc. should not be shared at any time, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak
   • If you do share drugs or supplies, make sure that you and the person handling them are always washing their hands and wiping down the supplies
4. Don’t inject alone
   • In case of emergency, have someone with you, but make sure they are 6 feet away
   • If you’re unable to find someone, have someone on the phone while you inject. If something goes wrong, they will be able to dial 911
5. If you run out of needles
   • Use what you have
     • Expel all blood (if any) from the syringe first
     • Load needle with bleach (if you have it) and expel once, then rinse with water twice
     • If you don’t have access to bleach, rinse with clean water 3 times
   • If you can no longer use your needles to inject, these are other ways to intake drug
     • Snort: chop into a fine powder and snort slowly
     • Smoke: need to have a clean pipe in order to do so
     • Swallow: effect might not be as good as injecting
     • Booty bump: combine drug and citric/ascorbic acid into a needleless syringe and inject it into your anus
       • This may be the best option because the effect is long and less of the drug is needed
       • It may take a while to feel the effects

Information was collected from Yale Program in Addiction Medicine, Global Health Justice Partnership, and Crackdown. “Guidance for People Who Use Substances on COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus).”