Mo Karnage

Sober Spaces in the Punk and Anarchist Scenes Updated from Cuddle Puddles and Hot Pants # 2

This is an article I wrote a loong time ago, like 6 or 7 years ago for the second issue of a zine I wrote called Cuddle Puddles and Hot Pants. Recently some friends asked for permission to use it for the veganwarfare.com website. I supported that of course, but I wanted to give the article a look over to do any editing or updating that might be needed. So here is the updated version, and please check out http://www.veganwarfare.com for more rad articles.

Sober Spaces in the Punk and Anarchist scenes

Within the punk and anarchist scenes there are many activities that are of interest to a broad spectrum of individuals- including people who drink/smoke/use drugs, people who never have, and people who are recovering addicts to certain substances. The problem is that many of these activities end up being organized in such a way that they are only accessible to people who drink, smoke, or do drugs – or are willing/able to tolerate those who do so. This means that there are significant sections of the populations who are either put in situations that are uncomfortable and lead to mental and physical health problems, even relapse, or are not able to attend at all. It splits our community and it limits our community. This is even a bad situation for people who do drink/smoke/do drugs. Because if they are not exposed to people who are sober they may not realize that they don’t always have to get fucked up to have a good time. (more…)