Members of the Urban Survivors Union sex worker organizing group, the sex worker organizing group of the U.S. national drug users union, will discuss how they’ve organized against harmful intersections in the wars on drugs and trafficking in two legislative campaigns. The danger that the net of criminalization will be widened to interpret all substance use connected to sex work as coercion and therefore trafficking is very real. The impact this would have on drug-using sex workers using together to protect each other—during an overdose crisis in which one of the largest risk factors is using alone–would be dire. As a group of drug-using sex workers and trafficking survivors as well as sex workers in harm reduction organizing with drug-using sex workers, we’ve surveyed our members on what drug-using trafficking survivors and drug-using sex workers actually need, and will be sharing that information with you.
