2. Street Surveillance and The War on Drugs

Content note: episode contains mentions of death, injection drug use and brief mention of suicide around [4:02] - [5:46]

Transcript available HERE.

“They’re not cops anymore. They’re soldiers. And we are the enemy” - Hugh Lampkin

Hugh Lampkin leads us through his experience as a harm reduction trailblazer in the Downtown Eastside with the grassroots group VANDU. He tells us how he and other activists had to smuggle naloxone from a conference before it was widely available in Vancouver, and learn exactly how this lifesaving drug works to reverse overdoses. We also visit Hugh's friend, Dr. Mark Tyndall, to see the MySafe machine, a smart harm reduction intervention making waves in the community - what benefits it has and what questions still remain when it comes to systemic racism in tech solutions. We speak with Vince Tao from VANDU and Meenakshi Mannoe from PIVOT Legal Society to examine the fundamental questions at play when it comes to the war on drugs, homelessness, and police violence.

*note: MySafe is an important tool in the range of harm reduction interventions available to interrupt drug poisoning deaths.

If you liked this episode, check out Crackdown, a podcast hosted by VANDU member, Garth Mullins.

Further resources:

• Ending human rights abuses in drug control - Amnesty International
• Recommendations to States on steps to ensure human rights in drug policy - Amnesty International
  
• Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) https://vandu.org/
  • They’re running an art fundraiser right now: https://www.gofundme.com/f/vandu-art-project
    
• PIVOT Legal Society “Stop the Sweeps Report” https://www.pivotlegal.org/stop_the_sweeps_report
  
• MySafe https://mysafe.org/
  
• Manifesto for Research in the Downtown Eastside: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubccommunityandpartnerspublicati/52387/items/1.0377565
  
• BOOK: Robyn Maynard “Policing Black Lives”
• BOOK: Ruha Benjamin “Race After Technology”
• BOOK: Harriet A. Washington “Medical Apartheid”

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