Beyond Prohibition: Healing Our Addicted City

Location: The WISE Hall, 1882 Adanac St. (at Victoria)
Date and Time: Thursday, April 10th, 2008, 7 – 9 pm

Vancouver has long struggled to deal with its well-known drug problem, particularly as it affects residents of the Downtown Eastside. Past approaches have focused the majority of our resources on law enforcement, to little or no success. This “war on drugs” approach has proven to be a failure as it has not achieved any of its objectives and is responsible for the creation of additional social and health problems. What is needed now is to move the discussion beyond concerns with prohibition and develop a clear understanding of what a post-prohibition world looks like.

The time has come to take action on establishing a compassionate, rational and workable strategy for healing the lives of the severely addicted and improving our city as a whole.

Join us for a discussion on how we can best move forward to stabilize the lives of drug users and create evidence-based drug policy.

Panelists:

Mark Haden works for the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, and has almost 25 years’ experience working with drug and alcohol programs. He has published numerous works on the issue of drug policy and the regulation of illegal drugs, and currently supervises the addiction staff at the Pacific Spirit Community Health Centre.

Ann Livingston moved to the Downtown Eastside in 1993, and has witnessed first-hand the damage perpetuated by the “war on drugs”. Since then, she has committed herself to advocating on behalf of people who use drugs, eventually founding VANDU in 1998. She is also a founding member of Pivot Legal Society and is a member of Vancouver’s Beyond Prohibition Coalition.

Jerry Paradis served as a Court of B.C. judge from 1975 until his retirement in 2003. Over the years, he came to realize the futility and harm caused the policy of prohibition. Since retirement, he has chosen to join the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition in order to speak out about the failure of our existing drug policies.

Admission: by donation