Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users

The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users or VANDU is an advocacy group based in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. They are made up almost entirely of active drug users

Recreational drug use

Recreational drug use is the use of a drug, usually psychoactive, with the intention of creating or enhancing recreational experience. Such use is controversial, however, often being considered to be also drug abuse, and it is often illegal...

, because they believe that all drug users should have their own rights

Rights

Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory...

and freedoms. They have been actively involved in lobbying for support of Insite

Insite

Insite is the only legal supervised injection site in North America, located at 139 East Hastings Street, in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia. The DTES had 4700 chronic drug users in 2000 and has been considered to be the centre of an "injection drug epidemic"...

, Canada's (and North America's) only safe injection site

Safe injection site

Supervised injection sites are legally sanctioned and medically supervised facilities designed to reduce nuisance from public drug use and provide a hygienic and stress-free...

, located in the Downtown Eastside

Downtown Eastside

The Downtown Eastside is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is known as "Canada's poorest postal code"....

of Vancouver.

Creation

VANDU was created in January, 1998, to combat the many different threats to the social health of the population of drug users living in Vancouver, including overdose. Its creating members include both Ann Livingston, a nurse, and Bud Osborn, who later became member of the Vancouver-Richmond Health Board.

Notable events

One of the first events held by the members of VANDU, along with the Portland Hotel Society, was to set up 100 crosses in Oppenheimer Park to represent the deaths of drug users due to preventable overdoses.

This placing of crosses was used once again on Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill

Parliament Hill , colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildingsthe parliament buildings serves as the home of the Parliament of Canada and contains a number of architectural...

to lobby for InSite.

Membership

In order to become a member, VANDU asks that a potential member come to sponsored group meetings regularly. Also, they ask that you review their core values and beliefs to ensure that you agree with all of their views. A visit to their office is then required to get on to the members list. The membership is not limited to peoples who have used illicit drugs, but those who have not used do not have a vote.

Goals and Beliefs

The following is an except from the VANDU website, outlining their goals and beliefs:

In 2009, the acting executive director of VANDU, Ann Livingston, illustrated that the then-recent violence

2009 Vancouver gang war

In early 2009, a series of gang-related shootings occurred due to what police describe as a gang war in Vancouver. Alleged participants include the Independent Soldiers, the Sanghera Crime Group, the Buttar Gang, the Bacon Brothers , the United Nations Gang, the Red Scorpions, and the Vancouver...

in Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

is directly related to drug policy. She argues that, in accordance with the beliefs of VANDU, prohibition

Prohibition (drugs)

The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent drug use. Prohibition of drugs has existed at various levels of government or other authority from the Middle Ages to the present....

should be altered or dropped and a legal drug market be created to eliminate most of the harms associated with drug use.

Staff and Teams

VANDU has created an injection support team to "provide education and support" for users who use intravenously and need education on how to safely inject. This team actually gives direct information to injectors on how to physically inject themselves, as opposed to general harm reduction information, which simply recommends using clean equipment but does not touch the subject of actual injection assistance.

Creation

Notable events

Membership

Goals and Beliefs

Staff and Teams

See also