American author and advocate
Tracey Helton Mitchell is an American public health worker and author.[1][2] In her teens and twenties she struggled with opioid use disorder and appeared in the documentary Black Tar Heroin. Mitchell stopped using drugs at the age of 28.[2] As of 2017 she managed a public health program in San Francisco.[2] In 2016 she published a memoir, The Big Fix: Hope After Heroin.[1]
Mitchell also received media attention in 2017 for mailing naloxone to drug users she connected with through web forums. At the time this was illegal, as naloxone is a prescription drug. Mitchell viewed it as an act of civil disobedience in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic.[2][3] Mitchell is on the board of NEXT Harm Reduction, which does similar work, inspired by her example.[4]
Mitchell is an alumna of San Francisco State University, earning a bachelor's degree in business administration in 2005 and a master's in public administration in 2007.[5] Mitchell is married and has three children. She lives in Daly City.[5]
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