Oct/090
Vancouver MP speaks out against Bill C-15
Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver East (including Downtown Eastside) spoke stongly against Bill C-15 in Parliament last March.
Libby’s speech was reprinted at the LEAP website. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is one the the strongest voices for drug policy reform in North America. In fact, on September 19th a New York Times Op-Ed Piece actually declared LEAP to be the “most effective” drug reform organization in America.
Libby’s speech from last spring is well-worth reading. Here’s a bit of what she said:
About 73% of federal dollars on drug policy in Canada go toward enforcement. Only 2.6% goes to prevention, only 2.6% goes to harm reduction and about 14% to treatment. That is a very uneven balance…
It might interest people to know that in 1994, 28% of Canadians reported having used illicit drugs, but by 2004 that number was at 45%. Certainly, the policies we have had that have been so focused on the criminal regime and the criminalization of drug users have been completely ineffective. We only have to look south of the border, where the so-called war on drugs has unleashed billions and billions of dollars and where we see massive numbers of people incarcerated, to see what a failure it is…
This bill would take a radical departure from that four-pillar approach by emphasizing the enforcement regime even more, taking it to some greater lengths by bringing in a regime of mandatory minimum sentencing. I think this is a huge mistake. There is no question that it is the core of the Conservative government’s agenda around crime. It is about the political optics. I have called it the politics of fear. People are concerned about drug use and crime in their communities. They are particularly concerned about young people being involved in using drugs. However, this bill will not deal with that. This bill will not change that situation. In fact, the evidence from both Canada and the United States shows us that the opposite will happen. It will only make the situation worse.
See LEAP reprint in its entirety here. Thanks for speaking “truth to power” Libby.
Oct/090
The ‘war on drugs’ shows no sign of ending
Late last Spring CTV in Toronto did a series of features on aspects of the war on drugs. One article in particular summarizes the current situation and makes reference to the Conservative’s Bill C-15 which proposes increased mandatory minimums for a number of drug offenses. The article notes that Canada would be following the American approach, and that despite locking up people at a greater rate than any other country, the availability of dope of all kinds is greater than ever before in the U.S.
In contrast to the Conservative’s approach, Toronto lawyer Edward Sapiano argues for a change in drug policy:
Defence lawyer Edward Sapiano thinks the so-called “war on drugs” has primarily benefited big-time dealers.
The economics are simple: Restricting supply in the face of constant demand means more profits for those in the dirty business of drugs, he said.
Because of the profits involved, criminals are willing to engage in violence to control the drug trade.
“We would almost certainly see a significant drop in crime rates if we not only decriminalized, but legalized, regulated and taxed” currently illegal drugs, Sapiano said.
Accompanying the article are 8 videos. The videos actually comprise the bulk of the reporting and thus they should be viewed. Check out this feature story here
Oct/090
User activist from Victoria dies…
Randy Beddow, a long-time activist with the Society of Living Intravenous Drug Users (SOLID), died on October 4th in his apartment in Victoria. Randy will be missed by friends and comrades. We last had the privilege of seeing Randy at the Pacific Summit on Drug User Health in Vancouver last May.
Randy’s passing was noted in an article in the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper. Read the online article here.
Oct/090
Going the wrong way with drug crime sentencing… Bill C-15
Canada is currently screwing up re: drug policy. This is because the Conservatives are setting the policy and the opposition won’t bring the government to task on their law and order war on drugs approach. Of course, one of the reasons why the Conservatives are going the direction they are is because they know such “tricks” work with the public. Hysteria and simplistic crime policy attracts an uneducated public, and no Liberal opposition worth its salt is going to try and stand up for a sane, evidence based approach if it takes too much educating of the public. Sad state of affairs. So the pragmatic, i.e. good with the public con job, Conservatives are taking their law and order stance no only for the ideological reasons, but also because they know they can garner the support of the ignorant, knee-jerkers.
Caleb Chepesiuk, a staff member with Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CCSDP), has written a good editorial about Bill C-15 at Rabble.ca. Caleb argues that the best way to take drugs from the grip of organized crime to is societally regulate (i.e. legalize or decriminalize) the provision of currently illicit substances in Canada (as other countries are beginning to take steps towards).
Canadians may need to take a strong, ‘tough’ stance against organized crime. What could be tougher on organized crime than taking away its profit source by successfully re-regulating drugs?
Read Caleb’s piece, written October 9, 2009, at Rabble here
B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS has written a concise statement critiquing the Conservative’s direction for drug policy and sentencing reform entitled “Incarceration does not deter drug use”. Download it from Drug War Survivor’s website : here
Sep/090
Filtering and injecting Morphine
The Network Against Prohibition (NAP) is a group dedicated to promoting and protecting the health and human rights of illicit drug users around the globe as well as the rights of those living in communities in developing countries who rely on opium, coca, cannabis etc for their survival!
The above quote is how The Network Against Prohibition user group from Australia describes themselves at their website.
Among numerous articles that can be found at NAP’s website is a detailed one regarding their suggestions for preparing morphine injections. Everyone who enjoys a hit of morphine, whether occasionally or dependently, should take careful read of the following article:
Filtering and injecting Morphine
Here in Canada we rarely find anyone who takes such careful and harm reduction motivated effort when preparing their hit. Unfortunately the provision of sterifilt filters, let alone wheel filters, are not provided by needle exchange program in Canada (yet).
Sep/090
Now we need a more humane strategy…
The war on drugs has failed. Now we need a more humane strategy is a strong advocacy article by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil, wherein he argues the case for a new global drug policy towards decriminalisation and promoting harm reduction.
The Guardian is one of England’s most well-respected newspapers. It is similar in status to the New York Times in the United States. Over the past several decades The Guardian has run numerous features questioning the “war on drugs”. The paper continued its call for a change in drug policy in its editorial of September 6, 2009 entitled Prohibition’s failed. Time for a new drugs policy
Also in the same edition of The Guardian are a couple other articles providing further rationale that the time for change is now and that change is happening.
Aug/090
Why it’s time to end the war on drugs…
The Financial Times of London, U.K. – like most financial newspapers – is not generally regarded as a progressive paper. It is, however, regarded as one of the most influential journals in the world. Thus it is very noteworthy that the Financial Times recently published an article entitled Why it’s time to end the war on drugs.
The article notes that 2009 is becoming a watershed year in terms of a growing global recognition that drug policy reform is much needed, or as the article observes, “there is growing sense that reform is possible and increasingly urgent”.
What is drug policy reform all about? As the Financial Times article accurately points out: “The argument is not that drug use is A Good Thing. It is that the collateral damage caused by the so-called war on drugs has now reached catastrophic proportions.”
Of course there are many agencies that have a vested interest in the current war-on-drugs status-quo, such as the police, prisons, courts, and most significantly, the Cartels. Opponents of drug legalization often point to the Cartels, arguing that they won’t go away just because drugs are legalized. That might be true, but whose making the legalization case on the basis of abolishing the Cartels as a primary reason anyways? The fact that the Cartels might continue to operate is not a reason, in and of itself, to say the legalization case is without merit. Of interest is the question “What Will the Cartels Do After Drugs are Legal?” and it is addressed in an article at Stop the Drug War website.
Aug/090
Victoria without needle exchange for 14 months
Victoria, the second largest city in B.C., has been without a fixed site needle exchange for 14 months. That’s absolutely outrageous.
In a province where a judge ruled the inSite safer injection site was a fundamental legal right for injectors, somehow a needle exchange was allowed to close simply because “stupid” neighbours didn’t want it operating in their neighbourhood.
Victoria’s user group, SOLID, has been running a guerrilla exchange within the no-harm reduction zone where the fixed needle exchange used to be. SOLID members patrol the streets with back packs providing clean syringes and doing clean up of the area for discarded used needles.
Finally it appears that Victoria may be getting a fixed needle exchange again:
Victoria News – Needle exchange location eyed
Another of those it’s about time situations.
Jul/090
U.S. House permits needle exchange programs
House permits needle exchange programs
U.S. needle exchange history
Finally! Albeit 20 years – and many, many, many thousands of deaths – late. Still better late than never. Hopefully a harbinger of more good changes to come.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi commented:
Sound science is an essential component of good public health policy, and the scientific support for needle exchange could not be more clear. The Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes for Health, the World Health Organization, and former Surgeon General David Satcher have all confirmed the scientific evidence in support of needle exchange programs. These initiatives are an effective public health intervention that reduces the number of new HIV infections without increasing the use of illegal drugs.
– The Gavel
Jul/090
Hello world! Hello friends! Hello drug war survivors!
After several years of struggling with free web hosts and free forums, and then several more years of using a donated subdomain at mammajamma.org, UNDUN has finally purchased its own web host and the domain name undun.org. This means we can finally created a permanent website that includes whatever bells and whistles we want. One such bell and whistle is this blog.
We intend this blog to be the main place in which we share info and provide updates on a regular basis. We will be blogging about all sorts of issues and events that we find interesting. And we hope you’ll find them interesting also. We plan on making new blog posts quite regularly. Ideally you will be able to find new and thought-provoking content here on more-or-less a daily basis.
Our website will not be update as regularly. We intend it to be a information source with pretty much static content – basically it is intended as a resource which provides key content about the fundamental issues pertinent to drug user organizing and a chronology of the major things we’re doing. Also we hope it will provide a good library of documents or other media specific to drug users’ activism.
This blog on the other hand will hopefully be lively and always updating, and cover a wide gamut of news or happenings from the world of drug user activism, or drug-related issues generally. Basically whatever we find interesting, we will try to share here with you.
Most importantly we hope this blog will become an interactive place, full of dialogue because of YOU making comments. We hope to have many threads of discussion in the comments section of each blogged item. Please feel free to share your thoughts. Don’t be shy. Your comments are majorly welcomed. We want to hear from you.