The Smoke Works team has been busy! Thank you for taking a moment to learn more about our work, our passion, and our impact.
We're celebrating 5 million pipes shipped in 5 years - and 190,000 FREE PIPES in 2025 alone. Read below to find out how - and why - we do it.
Smoke Works is a lot to sum up.
We do something very sneaky. We see the effects of pipe distribution and are compelled to expand access. Many people prefer smoking, leaving the need for syringes behind, reducing HIV/HCV risk. Pipes bring new people into service centers for HIV testing, naloxone, and care. When pressed to sum up our work I say, Smoke Works is an HIV prevention program disguised as a wholesaler. We could load backpacks with pipes and do outreach. Instead, we choose to distribute pipes nationwide, for as little as possible - often free - to harm reduction providers: syringe service programs, medical providers, public health institutions, and independent outreach groups - anybody fighting HIV & overdose.
We’re designed like the programs we serve
Where there is need, it is our responsibility to serve. We serve the harm reduction community by eliminating the largest barrier to supply distribution: cost. We’re here first and foremost for pipe distribution, but we also answer the question, What if money spent on harm reduction funded harm reduction?
How we’ve grown is as important as why. Smoke Works was built in discordance with capitalism. We’re here to give, not take. But a funny thing happened along the way: We grew ethically. Our early buyer’s clubs - up to a dozen independent outreach groups pooling funds to get more pipes for less - were supplemented by the sale of shirts, buttons, stickers, etc. Our capital investments came from the community, in merch sales and small donations. Buyers clubs turned into sales to larger organizations, funding more free pipes to underfunded programs. Five years later, we’ve shipped 5 million pipes to over 400 programs nationwide! Now its sales of harm reduction pipes and accessories that fund free pipes - 190,000 free pipes in 2025!
They’re right. We are built for this.
At the start of the year, I received calls from numerous programs who would be suspending pipe distribution due to policy and funding. One such program called to notify me of budget cuts threatening pipe distribution, which previously made engagement soar and reduced demand for syringes. They told me that in a meeting full of tears somebody said “Don’t worry, Smoke Works is built for this.” They’re right. We are built for this. We dedicate our 2025 efforts to several early, fervent supporters we’re lucky to have met, and miss dearly: Lil, Jessica, and always K.M.D