Help us Defend Harm Reduction (and our work)

Hi. I'm Emanuel Sferios, founder of DanceSafe and pioneer in the field of harm reduction. During the past 27 years I have developed numerous reagents as well as fentanyl test strips used today by thousands of individuals and harm reduction organizations around the world. Now I need your help for an important harm reduction legal defense. Here's our story...

Recently my friend and colleague, Matthew Aragón, and I started a project manufacturing overdose prevention kits for the consumer market using a century-old process of quantitative substance analysis. A German company, LeadiX GmbH (operating in the US as "Miraculix"), has sent us a cease and desist letter demanding that we stop distributing our test kits, and threatening to sue us. On top of that, they are attempting to patent a basic process of colorimetric drug testing—including for opiods—that has been publicly known in the scientific literature for decades.

It is our belief that this constitutes clear unfair competition, an attempt to intimidate us (and others) from competing with them under theories that amount to asserting a patent they do not have in order to preserve a high-priced monopoly. In fact, the International Searching Authority has rejected their application on nearly all counts of novelty and inventiveness.

We do not disguise the common reagents we use in our kits, or make false proprietary claims over the technology. Rather, we explain exactly how we make our kits, sharing this knowledge openly so that others can further the progress harm reduction has made over the last 40 years. They have also demanded that we take down that information.

Please help us protect the tradition of transparent, open source harm reduction, affordable overdose prevention kits, and our own right to continue working in this field we love so much. We have retained an excellent IP attorney, yet Miraculix has told us they are going to try to make this very expensive for us. Their strategy appears to be to raise our legal costs to force us to give up. Rest assured, that won't happen! I've been a harm reduction and drug policy reform activist for nearly thirty years, and Matt and I are committed to protecting the movement at all costs.

Visit our campaign page for more info, and please donate what you can. Your contribution will be actively appreciated and never forgotten.

Thank you,

Emanuel

- We will withdraw funds from our GoFundMe account only as needed, and every penny will be used for our legal defense.