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With global protests igniting around the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, calls to defund police are growing louder. For some, this may seem like an extreme proposition, but as the history of drug policy in Canada and globally has shown, the criminalization of drugs—and millions poured into police budgets to enforce associated laws—have fueled some of the greatest harms to society.

This interview by Black Lives Matter Toronto co-founder, Sandy Hudson, articulates the clear logic around defunding police and what that means: reallocated funds more intelligently and eliminating from police control those roles they are now performing that cause serious community-level harm, and getting other more capable organizations to carry out those activities. Social development is key to creating healthier and safer communities. We believe it would make society safer by reallocating resources into vital social programs—like housing and employment services—that would do a better job in creating safety for everyone.

The significant resources pouring into enforcing inhumane drug laws that criminalize the possession of controlled substances for personal use is one of many areas in the purview of police that should be defunded. There is a mountain of evidence showing that criminalizing people who use drugs is extremely harmful. Currently amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the criminalization of drugs forces people to consume substances in isolation and engage in survival strategies that increase their risk of fatal overdose.

The millions we spend on criminalizing drug use could instead be funnelled into harm reduction and drug treatment programs that have been proven to save lives and build community, rather than fuel harm. Police themselves have said that they “cannot arrest their way out of the overdose crisis.” The cost in taxpayer dollars, but more importantly human lives, could be reduced by moving away from policing in this area as has been done in other countries.

BC’s chief medical health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, recently lauded for her pandemic response by the New York Times, has called for the decriminalization of drugs. And this policy shift has been echoed by other leading health experts across Canada. This same shrinking of scope and defunding of budgets is possible in other areas of policing where public health and safety are being adversely impacted by police involvement, such as mental health calls.

The amazing efforts and courage of Black-led advocacy groups have pushed this issue to the forefront of our collective consciousness at a time when the world is on the cusp of transformative change. In addition to amplifying the messages and calls for change of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, we can play an important role by supporting its efforts on the ground to ensure this pivotal moment in history bends towards justice.

Please consider donating to Black Lives Matter Toronto or the Black Legal Action Centre to ensure the movement for change continues. 

Stimulus Connect #3 is happening June 26. RSVP here.

Drug decriminalization and defunding the police Drug decriminalization and defunding the police Drug decriminalization and defunding the police

I’ve learned very quickly that the Land Down Under and the Great White North have a lot in common: we’re both parliamentary democracies; we’re both partial to smothering french fries in gravy (even if Aussies call them “chips” and don’t add cheese); and of course, we both have universal healthcare.

Both our countries are understandably proud of our healthcare systems. While witnessing the current heated debate in the United States over universal healthcare, Australians and Canadians alike can find themselves thinking: “oh how primitive, we did that ages ago.” Yet despite our fantastic systems, in both Canada and Australia, patients still struggle to access a vital, all-natural pain relief medicine that has demonstrated a range of other positive health benefits, including helping children with epilepsy reduce their risk of seizure (Thomas & Cunningham, 2019). I am of course talking about cannabis.

In Canada, medicinal cannabis isn’t a government subsidized medication. This means costs are prohibitively high. In 2019, across Canada the cost of medicinal cannabis per gram was on average 75 cents higher than non-medicinal cannabis. This might seem like a small amount, but when buying in larger quantities to fill a prescription, these costs add up. Medicinal cannabis isn’t subsidized in Australia either; a six- to eight-week course of medicinal cannabis can cost over $750 AUD ($662 CAD). This can cause healthcare costs to rapidly increase; in Australia the cost of treating an epileptic child with a standard dose of medicinal cannabis is $60,000 AUD ($52,573 CAD) a year. Since these costs are not subsidized, this translates into crippling medical bills for a lot of families.

In response to this, Canada has seen some changes. Organizations like CanniMed subsidize the cost of medicinal cannabis for people on disability or unemployment benefits, and Veterans Affairs Canada also covers registered members for use of medicinal cannabis. Unfortunately, these are the outliers. Large numbers of low-income Canadians in need of medicinal cannabis are still unable to surmount the prohibitive costs.  In Australia, some state governments have sought to surmount financial burdens through compassionate access schemes, such as the framework set up in Victoria under the Access to Medicinal Cannabis Act 2016. This scheme subsidizes the cost of cannabis, but only for children with epilepsy and only if other treatments have failed. Whilst this is an important protection for vulnerable children, the scheme is currently capped at 90 participants, so it too is limited in scope.

Similarly, both Australia and Canada face issues of “postcode injustice” since there is a far greater degree of access to medicinal cannabis in cities than rural areas. In both countries there are troubling reports of people travelling hours from regional areas to fill prescriptions either due to a lack of clinics altogether or (as occurred in Manitoba in March 2018) clinics running out of stock.

Of course, the tide is turning in Canada. With cannabis legally regulated for recreational use, doctors are becoming less hesitant to prescribe it. As the normalization of cannabis use continues, insurance companies and government bodies are moving closer towards subsidizing medicinal cannabis. The legal cultivation of cannabis plants also helps bridge the gap for rural communities who might otherwise struggle to access medicinal cannabis.

Meanwhile, the illegality of cannabis in Australia creates additional barriers to health outcomes, which jeopardizes marginalized people in need of medicine. Whereas wealthy people can overcome the prohibitive costs of accessing pain relief, lower income families are forced to choose between agonizing pain, or the risk of arrest. This is another stark reminder that our outdated approach to drugs has real negative impacts that disproportionately affect disadvantaged groups.

Australia’s prohibitive regime at least (logically) makes sense: we’re still clutching our collective pearls at the thought of cannabis being used recreationally, so there is accompanying hesitation around its medical use. Despite slow moves to decriminalize recreational use of cannabis in some states and territories, there is still a long way to go before we see widescale legal regulation. But it’s a sad sight that in Canada you can purchase marijuana from a store as easily as you can buy alcohol, yet the medical benefits of this substance are not endorsed by health insurance providers or the government.

Australians and Canadians have a right to be proud of our healthcare systems. But we shouldn’t forget that when it comes to medicinal cannabis, we’ve got a long way to go. If both countries don’t take greater steps to improving access, our claims of superiority will be little more than blowing smoke.

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Thomas, Rhys H & Cunningham, Mark O (2019). Cannabis and epilepsy. Practical Neurology, 10, 465-471.

Being an Australian in Vancouver, I’m used to confusing people a bit. Sometimes folks can’t tell if I’m a Pom or a Kiwi. Sometimes my coffee order leaves baristas with furrowed brows. And once I made the mistake of using the slang phrase, “that’s fair dinkum” (meaning “that’s the truth”) in conversation with a Canadian friend, who insisted that Australian must be its own language.

But in the Canadian drug policy world, one observation of mine leads to more confusion than any quirks of pronunciation. When I say, “Australia is way behind Canada on harm reduction” people’s jaws hit the floor. A common response is: “but you folks have had safe injection sites since the 1990s!” They’re half right.

Australia currently has two supervised injection centres. One is run by the Uniting Church in Sydney and another is a government-run facility in my home city of Melbourne, which opened in 2018. So right off the bat, we’re lagging behind just on numbers: the city of Vancouver has more harm reduction facilities on one block than Australia has on a whole continent. But there’s more we could copy from Canada than numbers.

(Interactive Map)

 

I’ve been interning at the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC) since January and after getting here I took the opportunity to volunteer once a week at the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS), which operates a low-barrier overdose prevention site. I wanted to help a life-saving organization and understand a perspective on drug policy outside the confines of academia. I received a rapid reminder of how important overdose prevention sites are: on my first shift, there were three overdoses in three hours. Thanks to the intervention of staff, volunteers and paramedics, all three individuals survived—three lives saved. This work happens everyday, and the number of deaths prevented is much larger.

(Interactive Graph)

 

But there’s something else to OPS that sets it apart from the safe injection sites back home. OPS is a peer-led program; the staff and supervisors live in the Downtown Eastside and many of them have been or currently are people who consume substances or have experience with homelessness. Paying community members to work at the site gives them a “safe hustle” (a chance to make legal money) while also offering an empathetic ear to participants, rather than having privileged people talking down to them. As an outsider looking in, it’s so inspiring to see the respect that the supervisors and staff engender in participants.

You get a tangible sense of community by just looking around the space and observing the casual interactions between people. The notice board next to the sign-in desk is covered with artwork and poems made by community members. There are couches, which some people sleep on, and a big table in “the chill,” a space where people can hang out while they wait for a booth or just to chat with others. Even people’s handles (aliases that they use to sign in) are creative, personalized expressions—a mix of innuendo, puns or significant words or phrases from their lives. All of this combines to give a sense that this space belongs to the participants.

Being a volunteer at OPS has been a highlight of my time in Vancouver. It’s a really positive environment, which might sound odd since my first shift involved intervening in three overdoses, but I truly mean it. The staff are genuinely kind and warm, and it’s always great when I get the chance to chat to a participant as they sign in. Aside from getting to meet some inspiring people, OPS gives me a lot of hope, just as it does the countless community members who use its life-saving services. Working in drug policy, it is easy to become pessimistic when governments, police and uninformed people put hurdles in the path of progress. But OPS is a reminder that people are making a positive difference in the overdose crisis every day despite such obstacles.

This is what Australia is missing. Besides people being misinformed about safe injection sites, we lack a community-led approach to harm reduction. Australia should be focussing on creating spaces that aren’t just physically safe, but that also allow people to congregate, build community, and find hope. In short, Australia doesn’t just need more safe injection sites; it needs more spaces like OPS. And that’s fair dinkum.

Daniel Gates is a research intern with the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition studying a double degree of Law and International Relations at Monash University in Australia. The Overdose Prevention Society welcomes donations of clothing, blankets, and food. You can drop items off at 58 East Hastings Street, Vancouver between the hours of 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m., 7 days a week. You can also donate to them online here.

The following commencement address was delivered on October 27, 2019 to the graduating class of Adler University’s Vancouver Class of 2019 by Donald MacPherson, executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (Simon Fraser University), as he received an Honorary Doctorate in honor of his work to improve Canada’s approach to illegal drugs. 

Thank you so much for this incredible honor. I am delighted to receive this honorary doctorate from Adler University. It means a lot to me and I am quite moved by your decision. 

I do have a confession though: I am a lapsed Masters candidate—lapsed, indeed expired, like a parking meter. Out of time. They gave up on me. Yes, I received that letter informing me of my new status as a Masters candidate from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education many years ago. After two years full-time and two years part-time—ok I’m slow, I guess so slow that I lapsed—my status expired within the academic system. The finality of it all! Don’t get me wrong. It was the best thing I’ve ever done to go down that Masters rabbit hole.  The people, the program, the opportunity to spend time going deep into how people learn, how change comes about, and to learn about social movements around the world was one of the best things that I have ever done! 

But not finishing what I had started took me to some very dark places. I was so terribly hard on myself and coming down from the mountain without reaching the peak was difficult and devastating for some time. But coming down from the mountain is often the best decision lest the mountain engulf you. So, take care of yourselves and each other as you pursue your next steps. The work I know you are engaged with can be overwhelming, confusing, and challenging. 

I had good excuses though for lapsing out on my Masters.  I remember my thesis advisor coming across me changing the diaper of our second child on my desk at the university—she is with us today just over there—and he admonished me: “Donald, no more babies till you get that thesis finished.” Shortly after that my wife and I packed up our two kids and headed to Vancouver—me always intending to complete the program from afar. In Vancouver, we had a third child and I began working at the Carnegie Community Centre, at the corner of Main and Hastings, in the middle of what was to become the largest open drug scene in Canada and the confluence of an HIV epidemic among injection drug users and Canada’s worst overdose death epidemic. I was carried away and soon to be on a mission. And remained lapsed! 

I feel like I must only accept this honor on behalf of the many in the community and around the world who are working to change what are truly barbaric and simplistic historic approaches to the complex bio-psycho-social-cultural-developmental and often spiritual phenomenon: using psychoactive substances. So many have dedicated their lives to ending the devastating injustices of a global war on drugs, which really is a war on vulnerable, criminalized, and objectified people around the world. After all, those with privilege and power who use illegal drugs rarely meet the players in the criminal justice system. 

The recognition by Adler that the work to change the way things are in this country, and indeed the world, in the area of drug policy means a lot to me and indeed tells me much about the depth of commitment to social change of this university. The issue of drug policy reform has NOT been taken up as a critical social justice issue by so many governments, institutions, and other organizations that claim to pride themselves on supporting social innovation and change. Our drug policies are deadly public policies, and so many institutions are complicit in maintaining them. 

The commitment to community engagement by this university is a critical part of understanding the catastrophic failure of our current approaches. My education on drug policy issues came directly from the community here in Vancouver; [namely], from working on the corner of Main and Hastings for ten years, talking to people who used drugs and community members about the absurdity of our approach to people who use criminalized substances, which has played out with the same ineffective and harmful results over and over again. That is where I learned so much. 

But what advice do I have for you from my many years as a lapsed Masters candidate and drug policy reform advocate? 

Don’t look for jobs. Make them up! Look around and see what needs to be done and write the job description you want to have and shop it around. Sometimes it even exists out in the world, but you just haven’t found it. But knowing what it is helps you to navigate towards it. At other times your proposed job description will compel people to think about what is needed. I didn’t know I had these powers but the last three jobs I have had came from a real effort on my part to be clear on the context of the work that I wanted, as in the Carnegie Centre work, or to create opportunities to fill in a missing role in the orchestra of people working towards change, as in the City of Vancouver Four Pillars drug policy work and as in my current role as director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, an organization I co-founded with a number of other Canadians committed to working together to reform Canada’s badly outdated drug policies. 

Know that this is a critical time for social change. The structures and systems of the past have been found to be wanting in so many areas— economics, climate change, drug policy, housing to name a few—and there are real generational shifts and accelerations taking place that you will be a part of. Just ask dear Greta Thunberg who spoke so eloquently on Friday (October 25) about the need for climate action. Listen to her speech in Vancouver and learn from it.   

Be bold. Think bold, take risks, but be strategic. It is past time for bold action on any number of issues we face every day here in Vancouver and Canada. 

Canada’s response to the devastating loss of almost 13,000 people to illicit drug toxicity deaths in the past three years and three months has been pathetic and bound by blinkered thinking; stubborn adherence to policies that have failed miserably; and risk averse bureaucracies and politicians who refuse to even learn enough about the reality of this disaster, its impacts on families, and communities to be able to converse intelligently in public about the potential interventions that might work to stop this epidemic. The inability to even say the words that represent new and bold ideas in this recent election campaign is astounding. 

Some have even weaponized ideas that are in fact at the leading edge of public health and social justice thinking. One politician accused the leader of a party of planning to legalize hard drugs if elected—something she implied would be tantamount to chaos in our communities and death for our young people! We already have chaos and death and transnational organized criminal organizations selling drugs to our youth. That is the result of our current approach. She had no idea that the recommendations from two of Canada’s largest health authorities were just that: create a legal regulated market with currently illegal drugs. The Chief Medical Health Officers for Vancouver Coastal Health, Patricia Daly, and Toronto Public Health, Eileen de Villa, have both called for a legal regulated supply of opioids for people who use them so that they stop being poisoned to death in numbers that are at historic levels.

If our politicians have diverged so far from the evidence and advice of senior public health officials in the context of a national public health emergency, we have some major knowledge translation work to do!

Words matter. Find those new ideas and say them loud and often. Write about them. Put them on the record in your conversations with your bosses, your peers, and your community and institutions of government. Put them on the record in public hearings and processes. This will breathe life into them. 

Learn how to say things to leaders and others with power that make them uncomfortable. It’s an art to do this, but start getting better at it. If something looks like an absurd way to proceed, it probably is—so say it! 

And of course, always challenge yourself. Don’t get too comfortable in your work. Don’t become part of an “industry” servicing these complex societal problems within institutional systems that so often resist real change. This is a time of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, and a time when maintaining the status quo is killing people, a time when it is imperative to plan for and support engaging people with lived experience in all aspects of research and program development and implementation. Work from within if you are within. Institutional change is an important part of the way forward. There are thousands of willing people and many resources that can be harnessed to support radical change within in many community institutions in my opinion. 

And lastly, go find your peeps in other places. Go to international conferences that engage people working on the frontlines of responding to critical health, social, and economic crises globally. I often get asked how I continue to do this work after so many years of pushing for change that never seems to be coming fast enough. My answer is that there is an amazing global community of people in every country working hard to overturn draconian, harmful, and misguided drug policies that are causing immense harm to communities around the world. When we all get together it is powerful and accelerates our learning. We gain perspective, knowledge, and come to know that we are not alone in what is a global movement for change. And of course, the parties are spectacular! 

Best to you all at Adler in the coming months and years. May the road rise up to meet the class of 2019. I am so thankful that you are here! 

Thank you very much. 

Back in 2005, it was a dark time for drug policy in Canada. A Conservative government under Stephen Harper was openly hostile towards harm reduction efforts and fought the provision of life-saving services at Insite, North America’s first supervised consumption site, all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. They would eventually lose.

In 2015, the federal Liberals under Justin Trudeau brought a wave of optimism—“sunny ways,” they called it. But since then, nearly 13,000 people in Canada have died from accidental drug poisoning and overdose, and the body count has cast a pall over this government’s first term in office during what is undoubtedly one of the worse human rights disasters of our time.

Now, with a second mandate, the Liberals have another chance to do what is right: embrace evidence-based policies that will help end the deaths and human suffering crippling communities across Canada. But this time, there is one key difference that is cause for cautious optimism: with a minority government, the Liberals are now beholden to other parties for their power to govern, and at least two—the New Democratic and Green parties—have espoused progressive, bold ideas that the Liberals failed to embrace fully during their first term.

Both have called for the decriminalization of drugs (for personal possession), a step Portugal took in 2001, which has shown positive health and social outcomes. The Greens went one step further and stated their support for a safe and regulated supply of currently-illegal drugs (“safe supply”). This would directly address the root cause of this human rights and public health crisis: a toxic drug supply that is the product of an illegal, unregulated market created through prohibition. Jagmeet Singh, leader of the federal NDP, stated he would have called a national public health emergency on the first day of his government if he had won. This is a declaration the Liberals failed to call in their five years of governing—one which would have mobilized additional resources, underscored the urgency of this crisis among Canadians, and helped remove the deep stigma around substance use entrenched in society. Now, hopefully pressured by the NDP, the Liberals have a second chance to make that declaration.

With a minority government, we expect to hear strengthened calls for action and pressure from other political parties to act, and a renewed openness to exploring bold new initiatives led by people affected by substance use. That is because two parties in Ottawa have vocally called for change (decriminalization and legal regulation), and now one of them holds some degree of power to influence the trajectory of government. The NDP’s support is necessary to pass legislation, and keeping them on side is in the best interest of the governing Liberals.

The run-up to an election is also never an ideal time to take political risks, but now the Liberals have no such obstacle. The willingness and openness to do what is right should be an easier political path for a party that has just started its second term. And now, dependent on the support of other parties to maintain their tenuous grasp on power, the Liberals can let these parties champion in Parliament the politically contentious yet desperately needed policy solution to end the drug poisoning crisis they’ve been reluctant to implement.

(Interactive Map)

To be fair, the federal Liberals have done a vastly better job than the Conservatives would have in the area of harm reduction. During their five years in power they approved at least 40 supervised consumption sites (including mobile sites) and streamlined the process to applying for and opening these life-saving facilities. They have also begun to explore safe supply initiatives; and in general taken steps in the right direction, but never enough or with large enough strides to prevent the catastrophic loss of life unfolding across Canada. It is now time to take those steps. They have both the time, and support to do so. We hope to see not only more supervised consumption sites, but more stable funding and resources for those already saving countless lives every day.

With a new mandate and two parties supporting bold policy changes, Justin Trudeau has more latitude than ever to do what is right. It is precisely during times of crisis such as this where leadership is tested, and leadership can shine. We hope this will be one of those moments.

(Interactive Graph)

The answer to the headline’s question seems to be a resounding “no.” How else could one explain the catastrophic loss of life unfolding in Canada’s largest province. Nearly 1,500 people died in Ontario last year from accidental drug poisoning—a record number representing a two hundred per cent increase from a decade ago.

Behind each number was a human being—a friend or family member with aspirations and dreams in life cut short because of Canada’s fatally flawed drug policies. Prohibition is the root cause of this crisis, not the drugs people take.

And as communities continue to hemorrhage human lives, politicians with the power to enact life-saving change are failing to take the necessary steps that are proportional to the scale of this crisis: decriminalization and the legal regulation of drugs. It is considered too “politically risky” to embrace evidence-backed solutions people on the frontlines have been advocating since the beginning when those solutions run afoul of our outdated moral views on substance use.

And as people die, the federal government refuses to declare a national public health emergency for what Gillian Kolla, a harm reduction worker and public health researcher at the University of Toronto, called “the largest health crisis of our generation.”

At this critical point in Canada’s history, where complacency is fueling death, it has largely been volunteer networks of community activists and people who use drugs who have shown the courage to do what is needed by setting up overdose prevention sites to save lives. Without this leadership and conviction the death toll would have been exponentially worse, yet this community is continually fighting for resources and support from a provincial government that shows tepid interest in evidence-backed solutions. Premier Doug Ford himself has publicly stated his opposition to supervised consumption sites.

In this hostile climate, exhausted by grief and the wretched routineness of hearing about yet another fatal overdose, the frontline harm reduction community continues to save lives. Who else is there to do the work when much of society and government have turned their back on you?

Government investment in harm reduction services and a commitment to peer-led initiatives have failed grow proportional to the dire need. Data from the Public Health Agency of Canada reveals a sharp increase in the presence of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues in Ontario’s drug supply; and at last check, almost 90% of fatal drug poisoning/overdose cases involved these substances.

(Interactive Graph)

This is a direct result of our current drug policies that rely on prohibition and criminalization of people who use drugs—a system founded on racism and colonialism whose legacy continues to disproportionately affect people of colour and Indigenous communities today.

“The largest health crisis of our generation.”

~Gillian Kolla, University of Toronto

What is especially tragic is that the fatal overdoses most deeply affect those in the prime of their lives: Ontarians between the ages of 25 and 44. Across Canada, nearly 13,000 people have died from opioid-related causes in approximately three years. Last year, one person died every two hours, and for the first time in over four decades, life expectancy at birth has stopped rising because of overdose.

(Interactive Graph)

This is a crisis unlike any Ontario has seen before. The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) public health emergency in 2003 killed 44 people, yet mobilized hundreds of thousands of dollars of funding and captured media headlines for weeks. It is clear that with respect to overdose and drug poisoning the lack of appropriate action is fueled by stigma and the biases society holds towards substance use and people who use drugs. History will remember unkindly the collective apathy of those who had the power to enact life-saving changes in this catastrophe yet didn’t. The current inaction is not about a lack of government resources, but rather a lack of will.

Three years after a public health emergency was called in British Columbia, the need and urgency to end the drug war is more pressing than it has ever been. The Public Health Agency of Canada recently released a grim statistic: more than ten thousand people in Canada have died from fatal overdose in under three years.

Members of Moms Stop the Harm are all too familiar with the pain of loss. They came to the National Day of Action on the Overdose Crisis to remember their loved ones and fight for policy reform. At the heart of this crisis is a simple answer that remains painfully out of reach: a safe supply of drugs.

Hundreds of people gathered at 10:30 a.m. outside of Insite, North America’s first sanctioned supervised injection site, for the National Day of Action. A band welcomed the crowd as people brought floats and carried signs.

The tragedy touches all corners of society and attracted people from across the province. Similar events were happening in other provinces as well.

(Interactive Map)

The day was a national call for action. In 2017 alone, 4034 people died from fatal overdose across Canada.

Three people die every single day in Canada from unintentional opioid overdoses.

We need a #SafeSupply. #NoMoreDrugWar#TheyTalkWeDie #DrugPolicyCrysis #NationalDayofAction #OpioidCrisis pic.twitter.com/02TlxqF5mI

— ReedSiemieniuk. (@RSiemieniuk) April 16, 2019

The drug war has been a catastrophic failure. Prohibition and criminalization have handed the global supply of drugs into the hands of highly organized, transnational criminal organizations where an insatiable drive for profit blinds them from the human toll. Drugs, now laced with fentanyl and its analogues, are ravaging communities with little regard for the safety of consumers.

Canadian Drug Policy Coalition executive director Donald MacPherson addressed the media, echoing concerns around Canada’s fatal drug policies, which have created the current crisis, underscoring the need for a safe drug supply. The logic supporting this is so simple and strong, yet stigma born out of years of criminalization has shut down progress on this potentially powerful means to saving lives.

After initial speeches outside of Insite by organizers and an opening performance by Culture Saves Lives, the massive crowd marched up Hastings Street, flanked by police and followed by media.

They ended up at the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery where members of the community and their supporters spoke about the devastating toll of overdose deaths and unrelenting courage of people affected by the structural violence of prohibition.

“We’re out there saving lives every day. We got a lot of power as people in the Downtown Eastside.”

Malcolm (Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society)

Despite the pain and grief etched on so many faces, there were strands of hope that connected people during the rally. Frontline workers, peers, and people who use drugs who have shouldered this crisis and life-saving responses including overdose prevention sites, supervised consumption services, naloxone distribution, and simply being there for people when needed, renewed a commitment to fight for their right to safety, security, and dignity.

The fight continues; and so will we.