Category: Harm Reduction

Gillian Maxwell and CDPC Executive Director Donald MacPherson travelled with the Caravan for Peace from Baltimore to DC where their campaign to bring the realities of the drug war in Mexico to those in the US ended after meetings with US officials on Capitol Hill. The closing ceremony took place in Malcolm X Park where Sicilia gave a poetic and heartfelt speech about hope for the future and building a civil society movement for change through the connections that had been established during the Caravan’s presence in the US. Canadian leadership to end the drug war in Mexico is sorely needed at this time. CDPC will continue to work with our Mexican and American partners towards this end. 

Having been part of the birthing process of the North American caravan that was inspired by the heartbreak of Javier Sicilia over the death of his son at the hands of a Mexican cartel, it seems only fitting to be joining it at the very end of its journey coast to coast across the United States.

The Canadians rallied to the call and joined the Caravan in Baltimore for a Town Hall meeting on ending the War on Drugs. I was slated to speak on the panel to talk about the story of INSITE opening in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. It is a heroic tale of desperate circumstances, overcoming adversity and being part of a movement that went from local to national and prevailed. I talked about discovering the unique quality inside of us that we all have to offer to our community and how connecting to that is what makes the difference.

It was the first time I told this story from a personal perspective. I had my doubts but was encouraged by others who reminded me that I have been saying for years that we need to talk about drug policy reform in a more interesting way than statistics. Put your money where your mouth is, so to speak.

I stood in front of an audience of people who understood suffering only too well. There were the beleaguered African American community members from Baltimore, whose gracious and welcoming demeanour is totally disarming. Yes, they could talk about being stigmatised and persecuted for taking a stand.

Then, there were the members of the Caravan led by the inspirational being that is Javier Sicilia. He is unwavering in his commitment to keep going and speaks so eloquently of the issues that keep a wealthy and proud country like Mexico caught up in the past.

And then there were the rest of the Caravan pilgrims; mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, spouses and children of those who have been disappeared or killed. They are innocents whose lives were totally changed by an experience completely out of their control, and for most, without any hope of resolution or justice. Impunity is the worst betrayal of these gentle souls. Not only were their loved ones in the wrong place at the wrong time, the perpetrators of their murders are allowed to go free. There is no peace for these families and certainly no hope of justice. However, their quiet presence, their insistence in not being silent and asking for accountability is beyond dignified.

So, I stood in front of this group of people and spoke about the trials and tribulations of a community in the north who were indomitable and dedicated in their creative efforts to stand up for people dying unnecessarily of drug overdoses and HIV/AIDS. I had reservations about my own story, as I hadn’t experienced the violence and tragedy that the caravan had emerged from. But many of the members came up to me and shook my hand afterwards and thanked me for speaking. Then I realised that in that moment we shared our humanity. It is all we have to offer each other and it is enough.

– Gillian Maxwell

I met Javier Sicilia at the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City last February while at a conference on drug policy organized by Mexico Unido Contra la Delincuencia, a civil society group working on crime prevention strategies. Gillian Maxwell, a member of our Executive Committee, and I made the trip to share our experiences working on drug policy issues in Vancouver, to improve our understanding of the situation in Mexico and to make connections with Mexican NGOs and business groups. We were also keen to meet with Javier Sicilia who was working with colleagues in Mexico and the US on an ambitious new project.

Sicilia is a well-known poet, writer and journalist who was thrust into the spotlight when his son was brutally murdered in Cuernavaca after being caught in the crossfire between drug gangs. Upon this tragedy, he became one of the tens of thousands of innocent victims of the war on drugs being waged across this magnificent country. I had heard how Sicilia had stopped writing poetry and taken to the streets, igniting large protests that saw a hundred thousand citizens marching from Cuernavaca to Mexico City, demanding an end to the drug-related violence that has shaken the foundations of Mexican society.

I spotted Sicilia in the foyer of the museum and approached him from behind, calling out his name as he walked towards the museum auditorium. As I had no Spanish and knew he did not speak any English, I wasn’t sure how our meeting would begin should I get his attention. Finally he heard my calling, spun around, reached out and embraced me tightly with both arms and welcomed me into his space. Such a fulsome greeting offered to a complete stranger surprised me but over the next few hours I saw that Sicilia was an intense, committed individual who embraced many.

Our conversation was limited but we had a good connection and agreed to meet again with his organizers. We wanted to speak with them about the meeting the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition was organizing with American and Mexican groups to work on the idea of a North American coalition. The coalition would work together to highlight the negative impacts our current drug policies are having on Canada, the US and Mexico, with a specific focus on how the criminalization of drug use has created such a pervasive and violent underground market in all three countries.

Sicilia was interested in the concept of a North American strategy to end the violence in Mexico as he was already working to organize a Mexican/US project; the Caravan for Peace with Dignity and Justice. Which was about to traverse the US with a hundred or so victims of Mexico’s drug war.

The main objective of the Caravan is to bring to the streets and communities of the US the reality that Mexicans are facing – the loss of life, the destruction of communities, the culture of fear that permeates so many localities, and the unrelenting violence that takes place each day.

In the coming months CDPC will be exploring the connections between Canada, the US and Mexico and how our so-called drug problems are interrelated. We will be supporting the Caravan for Peace with Dignity and Justice through our blog, social media channels, and by travelling to Baltimore, Maryland to participate in a drug policy town hall meeting when the Caravan visits on September 8^th and 9^th.

We hope you will begin to think about how Canadians can become involved in supporting efforts to stop the violence in Mexico and look forward to your thoughts and ideas over the coming months.

The CDPC is in Washington D.C., for AIDS 2012 – a sprawling conference and gathering that attracts some 25,000 people from across the world. Yesterday we attended a day-long satellite meeting on the “Twin Epidemics of HIV and Drug Use”. It was an intriguing mix of solo speakers and panel presentations.

Gil Kerlikowske, U.S. Drug Czar, kicked off the day with a short talk about American drug policy. He talked about the U.S.’s new approach to drugs as a “third way”, though I’m not sure he spelled out the other two ways. Clearly he wanted his audience to appreciate that the U.S. War on Drugs was coming to an end. But the deployment of American law enforcement along the Mexican border, in Honduras and parts of Africa might suggest otherwise.

Kerlikowske took pains to talk about his support for a public health approach to drug use and praised his government’s support for the 2,600 drug courts already in existence in the U.S. However, he did not mention some of the issues inherent to the quasi-coercive methods used by these courts.

He also made clear his support for needle exchange, though was careful to note that Congress had tied his hands by banning federal funding for syringe distribution in 2011. He ended with a vague call for a “critical convergence” between public health and public safety. His definition of public health was clear from his earlier remarks, but his definition of public safety remained a small mystery, though he is likely referring to a continuation of the criminalization of some drugs.

Liz Evans from the Portland Hotel Society gave an impassioned presentation of the successes of Vancouver’s supervised injection site, Insite. Panel presentations ran the gamut. There was much discussion about the need to scale-up harm reduction interventions that can reduce HIV transmission. Speakers praised efforts to increase the availability of methadone, needle exchange, treatment, detox, and overdose prevention programs.

There was talk about the UNAIDS goal to reduce HIV infections by 50% among people who use drugs. Presentations examined the gap between what countries are willing to do and what’s needed. Over and over again, it was clear that civil society organizations with the support of the Global Fund and the Open Society Foundations carry the lion’s share of responsibility for harm reduction services around the world.

Funding for these groups is often precarious and time-sensitive. Speakers from the Global Fund advised audience members that the Fund is undergoing a review of its proposal processes and its approach to funding harm reduction. Clearly, audience members were worried that this might spell an end to the Fund’s support for harm reduction. We were advised to contact board members at the Fund to press our case for the continuation of harm reduction funding.

It likely won’t come as much of a surprise that U.S. concerns shaped the agenda for this meeting. Congress’s decision to withdraw funding for needle exchange underscored the stigma that shapes the lives of people who use illegal drugs. With this ban in place, it was difficult for some U.S. attendees to move beyond discussion of needle exchange to programs like supervised injection and heroin assisted treatment. Daniel Wolf from the Open Society Foundations pressed U.S. representatives to help audience members make sense of Congress’s decision and it was clear from their responses that promoting discrimination against people who use drugs is still politically useful in the U.S. There was also a curious sentiment among U.S. attendees: their hope for more meaningful drug reform measures in Obama’s second term (if he wins in November).

Some of the speakers spoke of their drug use histories and reminded audience members to focus on the whole person in their efforts to stem HIV infections. Representatives from civil society organizations including those in the U.S. talked about the needs of the people they serve and decried the deeply “resource scarce” environments in which they operate.

Over and over again some speakers spoke of the vulnerable groups who need harm reduction services, including men who have sex with men, people who use drugs and sex workers. So much so, that a speaker from New York’s Harm Reduction Coalition challenged some of these presenters to avoid re-marginalizing people with language that both fails to recognize the diversity within these groups and frames these groups as problems to be solved. As this critic noted, it was clear that politicians and world leaders were clearly the problem when it comes to meeting the needs of people who use drugs.

All in all, the day ended with a feel good sentiment but not much consensus on how to move forward. Speakers acknowledged that practical solutions exist, but are often politically unpopular. In the coming days, we look forward to deeper discussions at the conference about how to scale-up proven programs like needle exchange and supervised consumption.