Issue #30 | View PDF
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VANDU unites drug users, establishes platform
By Shaylee Perez
On June 12–14, 2009, the first-ever Pacific Summit on Drug User Health took place at the Delta Hotel on West Hastings Street.
Hosted by the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), the summit brought together over 100 active drug users from British Columbia and the Yukon, as well as non-user volunteers and professionals from Vancouver Coastal Health and Pivot, a non-profit legal advocacy organization located in the downtown eastside. A goal of the meeting was to unite the sentiments of former and current users.
“This is the first time the voice and intelligence of people who use illegal drugs dominated a process that focused on actions, rather than making a list of wrongs done to them, which I think was understood,” explained Ann Livingston, executive director of VANDU.
Born of this three day summit is the B.C./Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors. While the group is still in the planning stage, this excerpt taken from their six-point statement of unity indicates the purpose of the organization.
“We are a group of survivors of the drug war. We strive for social justice and advocate for human rights for people who use drugs. We work to eliminate the discrimination, criminalization, stigmatization and isolation of people who use drugs in all areas of social, economic and political life.”
The association is to be separated into the same regions that exist already under the B.C. Health Care system: Fraser Health, Vancouver Coastal Health, Interior Health, Northern Health, and Vancouver Island Health Authority. Barry Shantz and Jason Wilcox, both harm reduction advocates from Abbotsford, are to be responsible for the Fraser Health region, which encompasses the area from Burnaby to the Boston Bar. Roughly 30 per cent of all drug users in B.C. fall under their jurisdiction.
It is a vast undertaking, hindered by lack of funding, and policies such as the 2005 zoning bylaw amendment in Abbotsford that bans “needle exchanges, safe-injection sites, mobile dispensing vans, methadone treatment facilities and other types or similar uses” and the “one for one” needle exchange process as well as limited hours of operation for existing exchange sites.
“We are alarmed at the condition of drug user health in Surrey. Surrey’s big problem is the one for one system. You bring one syringe in, you get one out. Well, if you need 10, and you can only manage to bring in six on a Friday before closing, you can’t make it through the weekend,” said Shantz, member of the Abbotsford Mental Health and Addictions Working Group.
Shantz and Wilson (who has been HIV positive for 16 years) are currently looking for meeting space and funding for their regional portion of the group.
The B.C./Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors is the fourth user group to be facilitated by the Vancouver Area Network of Drug User’s. A registered non-profit, VANDU is funded by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority.
For more information, visit http://vandu.org.