Raise Shit! Social Action Saving Lives

196 Pages·2009·22.16 MB·English

by  Susan Boyd, Donald MacPherson, Bud Osborn

“The true story of the fight against the War on Drugs
It’s bold and thoroughly enjoyable.”
— LIBBY DAVIES, MP, VANCOUVER EAST
Susan Boyd • Donald MacPherson ° Bud Osborn
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2019 with funding from
Substance Abuse Librarians and Information Specialists (SALIS)
https://archive.org/details/raiseshitsocialaOOsusa
raise shit
BY BUD OSBORN
we have become a community of prophets in
the downtown eastside
rebuking the system
and speaking hope and possibility into situations
of apparent impossibility
to raise shit is to actively resist
and we resist with our presence
with our words
with our love
with our courage
.
.
'
SOCIAL ACTION SAVING LIVES
Susan Boyd
Donald MacPherson
Bud Osborn
FERNWOOD
PUBLISHING
Halifax & Winnipeg
Copyright © 2009 Susan Boyd, Donald MacPherson, Bud Osborn
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, except
by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Design: David Lester
Cover photos: Elaine Briere
Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Book Printing
Printed on FSC Certified paper
Published in Canada by Fernwood Publishing
32 Oceanvista Lane
Black Point, Nova Scotia, BOJ 1B0
and #8 - 222 Osborne Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3L 1Z3
www.fernwoodpublishing.ca
Fernwood Publishing Company Limited gratefully acknowledges the financial
support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry
Development Program (BPIDP), the Canada Council for the Arts and the Nova
Scotia Department of Tourism and Culture for our publishing program.
1I Canadian Patrimoine The Canada Council for the Arts
NovJscbnA
|t| Heritage canadien Le Consei! des Arts du Canada
Tourism and Culture
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Boyd, Susan C., 1953-
Raise shit! : social action saving lives / Susan Boyd, Donald MacPherson,
Bud Osborn.
ISBN 978-1-55266-327-1
1. Intravenous drug abusers-British Columbia-Vancouver. 2. Intravenous
drug abusers-Services for-British Columbia-Vancouver.
3. Downtown-Eastside (Vancouver, B.C.)-Social conditions. 4. Vancouver
Area Network of Drug Users. 5. Needle exchange programs-British
Columbia-Vancouver. 6. Social action-British Columbia-Vancouver.
I. Osborn, Bud II. MacPherson, Donald, 1952- III. Title.
HV5840.C32V36 2009 362.29'38097l 133 C2009-904066-2
contents
Acknowledgements... 6
•
Preface: Collective Activism... 9
1
In the Beginning... 11
2
The Killing Fields, 1997: 1000 Crosses... 19
3
Local Resistance: Back Alley on Powell Street... 29
4
An Epidemic: Overdose Deaths and HIV... 35
5
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU)
Emerges... 43
6
Why Don’t You Just Kill Us... 70
7
Speaking Out Against Opponents... 105
8
Local and Global War on Drugs:
The Harms of Prohibition... 127
9
Vancouver’s Public Health Emergency Continues... 155
10
Carrall Street and Insite: Safe Injection Sites... 180
11
In the end... Resistance and Hope... 186
acknowledgements
This book would have been impossible to write without the many
people and groups who came together as a social justice move¬
ment in the 1990s in response to the HIV and hepatitis C epidemic in
the DTES. This project benefited from the help of a number of these
dedicated people. London Mackenzie offered us the use of her art
studio over the last four years. We met there on the weekends and
spread out our work on tables surrounded by her brilliant canvasses
on the walls. Elaine Briere contributed her black and white photo¬
graphs, a visual human history of the social movement in the DTES.
Early on in the project, David Lester provided guidance about for¬
matting and style, and he created the layout of each page for the
final project. He was our artistic guide in this complex endeavour.
Dave Diewert supported our project by bringing our attention to
community efforts in the DTES. Both Libby Davies and Dan Small,
long-time activists in the DTES, agreed to read our first draft. Connie
Carter and Judith Brand proofread an early draft, and Beth Abbott
proofread the final copy. Their comments were much appreciated,
and the final book reflects their suggestions, although any mistakes
are our own. Finally, we would like to thank everyone at Fernwood
Publishing, especially Errol Sharpe, for taking an interest in our book.
In memory
of those who have died
from drug overdose
and HIV/AIDS
RAISE SHIT!
THE PRICE OF ADDICTION: 1000 Crosses, Oppenheimer Park, Downtown
Eastside, 1997. A protest against preventable drug overdose deaths. Vicki Fraser
mourns the loss of her friend. Vicki herself becomes a victim of the pandemic.
8