for a
Drug User
Liberation Movement
July 2010
VANDU is part of a liberation
movement of people who use drugs and part of a movement for social and economic
justice. We recognize that systemic
factors shape how and why people use drugs. Criminalization, poverty and a lack
of power are the fundamental problems facing our community. We need access to the resources necessary to
live a dignified life, starting with descent housing and health care. Our liberation will come when we have real
power in decisions that affect us starting with, but not limited to, laws and
policies having to do with drugs and drug use.
WE ARE THE SURVIVORS… We are
VANDU:
We are survivors of the drug war. We are current and former users of illicit
drugs. We are people who have had our
human rights and dignity violated, our children taken away and have been
criminalized and incarcerated because we use drugs. We are a community of people who stand up for
each other and stand up for the rights of drug users.
We are a voice for people who
use drugs and an organization where the most oppressed and marginalized can
have a voice, act as citizens and exercise real decision making power.
Within our organization we build
meaningful relationships and mentorships between generations of activists. Board members and leaders are active and
present within meetings where hundreds of drug users participate every
week. This makes us stronger as
individuals, and stronger collectively, so that we can fight for the rights and
power we are currently denied.
Our movement for liberation
includes:
-- ending the stigma, criminalization,
and marginalization which are a consequence of the ill-conceived war on drugs;
-- “the right to obtain, prepare, and
ingest drugs, and to be intoxicated on drugs, according to our own personal
decisions without criminalization or unsought interference from other
individuals or organizations, as long as our drug use does not directly harm
other people”;[ii]
--the creation of a regulated drug market
where people who use drugs have access to quality controlled drugs and can use
them without fear or prejudice;
--and it includes our right to homes, a
decent income, transportation, nutritious food, clean water and healthy and
safe communities.
OUR VOICE, OUR WAY…
“Ultimately, the most profound need to establish such a network [of
people who use drugs] arises from the fact that no group of oppressed people
ever attained liberation without the involvement of those directly affected by
this oppression.”[iii]
At this point in history the question of how drug users are organized
and represented in this liberation movement is decisive. ‘Representation’ of
drug users has too often taken the form of below minimum wage jobs such as
cleaning alleys. Or it has taken the form of ‘peer’ groups which are actually
run by non-drug users and/or handpicked ‘peer’ representatives who have closer
ties to research and service provider patrons than they do to the communities
they purport to represent. While we
support current and former drug users to be employable and to work for decent
wages in agencies and NGOs, this form of participation does not constitute real
representation of people who use drugs as a group, as these workers are then
accountable to their employers and not their fellow drug users.
If we are to overcome the current oppressive drug regime
and realize liberation for drug users, we need organizations of people who use
drugs that are grassroots, democratic, relevant and effective.
Such organizations should:
1. Be open to people who use
drugs including the most marginalized and vulnerable users;
2. Be transparent so that
people know exactly how they can be involved, how to access any benefits of
membership, how to move into leadership positions, and how to exercise their
democratic rights as members;
3. Be democratic with an
elected and accountable leadership who are accessible to the membership;
4. Be clear that people who use
drugs are the ones to define the participation of people who do not use drugs
in the organization;[iv]
5. Take action on the issues of
the most concern to members of the organization, and have mechanisms for
identifying these issues.
These basic criteria will ensure real self-representation of people
who use drugs.
We have had enough of self-selecting leaders and token
spokespeople. People who use drugs
should be represented by leaders and organizations that are accountable to
us and by leaders who put our collective interests above individual narrow
agendas.
This is a challenge to academics, policy experts and service
providers: we do not want to be used as cheap labour, we do not want to be
studied while we die, or be turned into clients while resources are given to
‘service’ agencies. We will not tolerate
actions that exploit the labour, activist work, or experiences of people who
use drugs. Finally, we expect responsible researchers, experts and academics to
support us!
FOR A LIBERATION MOVEMENT OF
PEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS!
“We need to recognize that it’s not
deviant or pathological for humans to desire to alter their consciousness with
psychoactive substances. They’ve been
doing it since pre-history… and it can be in a religious context, it can be in
a social context, or it can be in the context of symptom management.”[v]
We are everyday people. We are paid and unpaid workers; we are
parents, brothers, sisters and aunties; we are artists and philosophers and
warriors; we are community members and activists and friends. We have made and continue to make huge
contributions to our families, neighbourhoods, and communities. We refuse to be labeled based on what
substances we may or may not choose to put in our bodies. We will self-identify
as drug users or junkies or crackheads if we choose, but we will not be labeled
and scapegoated for the benefit of those who want to lock us up, study us,
warehouse us, or fix us.
Ending the labeling and scapegoating of
people who use drugs as ‘the problem’ is a positive first step towards dealing
with the real social problems facing our communities, our neighbourhoods and
our world.
We might take drugs to deal with
psychological trauma or physical pain, or for pleasure or fun. Whatever the reason, our use of
psychoactive substances is not the problem! In those instances where our
drug use is a response to our experiences of poverty, inequality, colonization,
forced migration, workplace injury and inadequate access to pain relief, these
are the social problems that need to be dealt with, not our use of
drugs.
Drug users unite to fight for justice and
liberation!
[i] This document
was written in a collaborative process by 20 board members and leaders of the
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) over the course of several weeks
and many hours of meetings. It was
ratified by the VANDU Board and is currently being discussed by hundreds of
VANDU members in the component groups (Tuesday Education/Action Group, VANDU
Women’s Group) and allied organizations (BC Association of People on Methadone,
Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society).
[ii] Russel Newcombe, Drug Users’ Charter of Rights, Manchester , England
[iii] From The Vancouver
Declaration: Why the world needs an international network of
activists who use drugs, Vancouver , Canada
[iv] For example, staff
at VANDU has included drug users and non-drug users, but hiring and firing
power is held by the Board of Directors which is composed entirely of current
and former users of illicit drugs.
[v] Perry Kendall,
British Columbia Provincial Health Officer, November 2003
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