John Makohen asks what each substance is doing for the person using it. This series article explores sleep, anxiety, pain, mood, timing, and sequence—and why understanding a pattern must go alongside substance-specific assessment and attention to the risks of mixing drugs.

John Makohen combines lived experience and counseling expertise to argue that harm reduction is survival, not surrender. Naloxone, fentanyl test strips, medications, and overdose prevention centers keep people alive, reduce harm, and connect them with care.

Joshua Bennett-Johnson argues for harm reduction, naloxone, syringe services, safer-use tools, autonomy, and dignity in addiction care.