VANDU Marches on International Overdose Awareness Day

If you had to be anywhere in Canada on this International Overdose Awareness Day, it would be Vancouver, at ground zero and the front lines of the war on drug users.

The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) rallied on this International Overdose Awareness Day to denounce government inaction in the face of a seven-year public health emergency which keeps claiming the lives of thousands in this province every year.

Watch more videos on Youtube.

At least a hundred people took part in the march, led by the mandatory mock coffin, which went from VANDU’s office to Oppenheimer Park, chanting slogans such as “Safe supply saves lives!”, “Whose streets? Our streets!”, and of course “Fuck the VPD!”

Here’s the coffin. It’s so much better than a banner.
About a hundred marchers in front of VANDU’s office on East Hastings. Several more would join us at Hastings and Main.
I spent nine hours in public transit today just to block traffic at that intersection. It was so worth it. Chanting anti-police slogans while surrounded by officers was of course a nice bonus.
Police presence was impressive: six officers on bike, two on motorbikes, and several cars blocking traffic in every direction. Remarkably, the officers refrained from antagonising the protesters, in contrast with VicPD at the #StopTheSweeps rally here in Victoria.

Protesters occupied the intersection of Main and Hastings for about fifteen minutes, during which speakers reminded the crowd of the long laundry list of grievances the community held against every level of government, starting with of course the city of Vancouver.

I wish, but sorry pal, this war will not be decided by evidence. We’re way past that point.

Garth Mullins, for one, stressed that only direct action and civil disobedience would get the job done in a drug war against a racist government engaging in a campaign of genocide using this crisis as a proxy weapon.

Of all the speakers though, I would say the most eloquent was Vince Tao, whose words I shall just borrow verbatim:

We see that every overdose death is a police killing. Because we remember that the police don’t just kill with bullets, they kill with their budgets. Every single dollar spent on the police to enforce this drug law is a dollar taken away from housing, from social services, from welfare, from the people.

Vince Tao, VANDU

We had to make way for an ambulance between speeches, which of course everybody knew was rushing to the site of the latest overdose.

Then the procession continued to Oppenheimer Park, where the participants would gather in a circle around more speakers, telling how the system drives people to street drug use by denying them the medication they need, including of course painkillers. Which shows current policy is about controlling the drug supply, not saving lives nor giving patients what they need.

Say it with me: “Safe supply saves lives!”
A memorial to the fallen. Rest in power.
I want one of those! Are they for sale??? (The shirt, I mean, not the meth.)
Indeed more protesters were wearing black than purple, including myself.

The event continued with a ceremony, and later with a barbecue which I did not attend; I had to go back to Victoria before dark so I left early.

On my way back, I stumbled onto the site of yet another overdose, at East Hastings and Gore. I had a chat with the lady who administered naloxone to the patient. She told me it’d been her second intervention within the hour. I can attest this claim is credible, there being first responders at every other street corner all day long. This International Overdose Awareness Day was just another day for this patient, and for countless others, surrounded by people who themselves did not need to be reminded they are constantly surrounded by preventable death.

I swear every other intersection looks like this all across the DTES. All day long. All year long.

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