The Trump and DeSantis administrations continue to criminalize drug use, sex work, trans healthcare and homeless people. While moneyed nonprofits can lobby for governmental change, Clearwater-based harm reduction group Kaon City Medics group is taking direct action.
The Transformers-themed team—complete with code names from the series, like Octane and Skyfire—can be spotted on the streets of Pinellas county, caring for residents who don’t have permanent housing and might otherwise not receive medical attention. Homeless individuals often feel that doctors are biased against them and treat them worse than other patients. Because of this, they may avoid treatment even for severe medical issues. KCM steps in to bring treatment directly to people who have learned to avoid professional medical care.
KCM wants to remove barriers to healthy living for everyone who feels abandoned by the government. This includes sex workers, for whom they provide safe sex kits and self-defense items. It also includes trans people, who are given supplies to administer hormones safely, rather than having to inject with the wrong kind of needle or improperly dispose of sharps. Drug users can get safe snorting, safe injecting and safe smoking kits as well as drug test strips to avoid injury from contaminated supply or unsafe delivery methods.
Welcome to Creative Loafing’s Best of The Bay 2025
At a time when being online can be insufferable, and taking care of business in the real world gets overwhelming, these winners give us a chance to log off, take a breath, and check out that cool thing our neighbors are up to…