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Congratulations to VANDU on their 10 year Anniversary!! |
The Vancouver Area Network of Drugs Users (VANDU)
is a group of users and former users who work to improve
the lives of people who use illicit drugs through
user-based peer support and education.
In response to epidemic rates of HIV/AIDS infection and general social unrest in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, VANDU formed in January 1998 to address issues of poverty, social exclusion, criminalization, and ancillary illness from the ground up. VANDU is now funded by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCHA) as part of its harm reduction strategy. As a registered non-profit, VANDU’s primary objective is to increase capacity of people who use illicit drugs to live healthy and productive lives. This is accomplished through peer-based support and education. VANDU holds several weekly support group meetings, and its membership is actively involved in public awareness and education campaigns (through media, conferences, and outreach), hospital visits, and community and legal advocacy. Since 1998, VANDU’s membership has grown to over 2000 strong, making VANDU the largest organization of its kind in the world. VANDU has retained a high profile in the public eye, through recent media events such as Dan Rather Reports, and the 2004 Genie Award-winning documentary Fix: Story of an Addicted City, which chronicles the events leading up to the opening of North America’s first safe injections site.
Join VANDU for their 10 year anniversary celebration on July 19, 2008!!
CLICK HERE for further info!
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*The Recovery Talk Network was formed to reduce the stigma of the disease of addiction by providing listeners with a wide array of people who share their recovery or how they help others recover.
Guests include authors, doctors, as well as members of 12 Step anonymous programs and others who found alternative paths to recovery.
We are excited to bring you this new feature! Check back here often as the radio shows are updated each week. Even more exciting is that I will be a guest on this radio show in the next few weeks...will post the date/time as soon as I get it! (I'm nervous already, lol)
Read a little more about Larry W. and his co-hosts on our home and Advocacy page and their website, http://www.recoverytalknetwork.com/
MSO's taped show from February 5, 2008... featuring Carol Sholiton, Melissa Wann and "Zenith" can be heard by going to the links below.....
HOUR ONE
HOUR TWO
* RTN is now on break *
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THE 2006 & 2007 AATOD CONFERENCES ARE OVER!! BUUUUT.....
COME CHECK OUT THE AATOD FORUMS!!!
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With the 2007 Harm Reduction Conference recently coming to a close, we have received a few different reports that we would like to share.
This is from the conferences website - http://www.harmreduction2007.org/....
Farewell Warsaw, Welcome Barcelona!
With nearly 1200 delegates from 82 countries attending, the 18th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug-Related Harm has proven a huge success and a wonderful venue for the exchange of ideas and information about the issues of Harm Reduction in the modern world. A full conference report, detailing the proceedings of the event, will be available soon.
I have some wonderful audio files from the Warsaw ibogaine Forum that Howard Lotsof sent me, but unfortunately the quality is not great and I am waiting to hear back. We will also be adding a new page to our website here for information about Ibogaine shortly!
Meanwhile....here's some photos from Warsaw.....
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Howard Lotsof presenting on Ibogaine
long shot of the Danish Drug Users Union
office hallway in Copenhagen
Rokki(NAMA) and Berne ( NAMA's Swedish representative)
We received this from UNDUN - Unified Networkers of Drug Users Nationally...
International Drug User Activists Meeting in Warsaw, Poland May 13-17, 2007
Several hundred drug user activists from around the world are gathering in Warsaw, Poland to take part in user-organized events, as well as the 2007 International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm.
The international conference is hosted by the International Harm Reduction Association (www.ihra.net). Now in it's 18th year it attracts some 2,000 participants annually. Attendees come from every stripe to which harm reduction is a viable philosophy in which to approach problematic substance use and HIV/AIDS prevention for injection drug users. Flocking to numerous workshops will be doctors, nurses, government officials and bureaucrats harm reduction academics, street-based program staff, and active drug users. They come to listen, learn, and share ideas for how to better manage the realities of drug use world wide.
The international conference was held in Vancouver last year. Coinciding with the main conference, drug user activists organized their own International Drug Users Congress, during which they worked out the Vancouver Declaration. The Declaration has subsequently been translated in 18 languages.
"We are people from around the world who use drugs. We are people who have been marginalized and discriminated against; we have been killed, harmed unnecessarily, put in jail, depicted as evil, and stereotyped as dangerous and disposable. Now it is time to raise our voices as citizens, establish our rights and reclaim the right to be our own spokespersons striving for self-representation and self-empowerment" begins the Vancouver Declaration.
The Declaration provided a springboard for international drug user activists. Following Vancouver, user activists returned home to work in their own communities and they also continued communicating with their counterparts internationally. Working throughout last fall and winter, through email mailing lists and other means of online communication, international drug user activists formed their organization, the International Network of People Who Use Drugs (INPUD). In March INPUD launched their website at www.inpud.org.
INPUD is comprised of many member groups and individuals, including national drug user organizations from countries such as Germany, Denmark, Indonesia, and Australia, as well as many drug user groups. In Canada the groups are VANDU, UNDUN,(www.undun.mammjamma.org ) CANDU and MANDU. The most prominent among the drug user groups is VANDU, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (www.vandu.org) which is largely located in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver, and the Methadone Alliance (www.m-alliance.org.uk), a U.K. based organization that provides training and assistance to persons on methadone maintenance treatment. INPUD truly comprises an international network of people who use illicit drugs and attempts to give voice to the some of the most marginalized, stigmatized people in countries around the planet.
This week in Warsaw, INPUD is finally meeting person-to-person as an organization for the first time. For months in advance of Warsaw, INPUD members have been preparing the agenda for the 2nd International Drug Users Congress which if formally recognized as a Satellite of the International Harm Reduction Conference. The agenda is posted online at the official Conference website (www.harmreduction2007.org).
INPUD activists attending the Conference are regularly providing updates for members back home who were unable to attend. Some of their updates are posted to the INPUD website, and others are appearing on You Tube as video reports.
Here is the link to the video....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzR5EYXIogU
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Now Being Shown Online!!
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ADDICTIONACTION.ORG |
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In an
unprecedented partnership, Join Together, Community
Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), and Faces &
Voices of Recovery are uniting to help communities make
the most of a powerful opportunity to bring the message
of addiction treatment and recovery to millions of
Americans. We hope you will join with us.
On March
15-18, HBO will launch the Addiction Project, a
groundbreaking multi-media campaign to help Americans
understand addiction as a treatable brain disease,
spotlight new treatment advancements, and provide hope
for long-term recovery. The 14-part series will air
during a free HBO preview weekend, and it kicks off with
a March 15 broadcast of the centerpiece documentary
ADDICTION at 9 p.m. ET.
To find out more about HBO's
ADDICTION project and exciting ways you can get involved
in mobilizing your community around it, visit www.AddictionAction.org.
We urge
you to build on these programs and the
national attention they will command, mobilizing your
community to improve access to treatment and increase
support of long-term recovery.
Visit www.AddictionAction.org
to learn more about the ADDICTION series and find out
how you can get involved:
- Stand up and be counted.
Tell
us that you will watch the show and use it to
spread the word to your family and friends about
addiction and the reality of long-term
recovery.
- Attend a town hall
meeting to view a preview screening of
the film. Invite your elected officials to watch it
with you, then discuss how it relates
to conditions in your community. Events are
currently scheduled in over 30 cities.
- Host or attend a national house
party on March 17 to watch and discuss an
airing of ADDICTION with friends, co-workers, or
elected leaders -- and develop a plan of action
for your community.
- Spread the word to
friends, family and co-workers.
We'll
send you updates - and more information - about
ADDICTION and the opportunities for advocacy and public
education, but you don't have to wait. Don't
pass up the chance to start getting out the
word!
Can we
count you in to watch ADDICTION March 15-19? Click
here to let us know. Then, sign up to host
a house party and invite 10 friends to join you in
taking action.
With your
help, we can play a major role in fundamentally changing
the way Americans view – and treat – people with alcohol
and drug problems.
Thank you
for all that you continue to do. Sincerely,
Join
Together, CADCA, and Faces and Voices of
Recovery
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If you would like to make an announcement or list an event on this page...just drop me an email!
