 My name is Louise Vincent. I am with Urban Survivors Union, which is the National Drug User Union, but I also work for North Carolina Survivors Union, a chapter of Urban Survivors Union. My name is Robert Suarez. I am a board member for NCSU, which is the North Carolina Survivors Union, and I do a lot of work with USU, the Urban Survivors Union, as the harm reduction consultant. Hi, my name's Hollis. So I've been working at harm reduction since 1987. I recently left my full-time position in California with the San Francisco Drug Users Union maybe a little over a year ago. I still do consulting with them and I consult with other programs on the side. I call myself an active drug user, which means that I have used drugs from the time I was about 12 or 13 until currently. I've been practicing harm reduction for the last 15 years. For the longest time, my usage had me in a place where I was under bridges, under highways, and in a batch of parks using it in New York City. I was a broken user, right, and I found harm reduction through an organization called Vocal New York. Over the years, my drug use has proven to be both harmful and helpful because it's given me something to literally live for and fight for. In 1986, I was saving someone's life. They overdosed in a hotel room. There was a lot of drugs in the hotel room, so I called the ambulance. The police came before the ambulance came and handcuffed me on the bed. My friends, like, turning like all shades of purple and blue on the floor, they took him to the hospital and took me to jail. Had he died, they said they were going to charge me with involuntary manslaughter because I was in that room. I was like a kid. I was 24. I ended up facing 22 years for that night, and I'm catching eight felonies. So, what has that done? Like, 30 years later, almost. It follows me around. I can't, I can't get a job. I can't rent a fucking apartment. I can't go to school or get student loans anymore. I ended up in a long-term program stipulated by the court. I actually finished the program and graduated satisfactorily, but only one in a hundred made it through that program to graduation. I saw a lot of people leave that program with everything they had stuffed in trash bags, knowing that they were gonna probably go back to jail, definitely lose custody or visitation of their children, and I saw how the community, the recovery community turned on those people and blacklisted those people, and it upset me. So, I looked for an alternative to be able to help people that are in that situation, and that's how I found harm reduction in the very early stages when it was first brought to America by Edith Springer, who was actually my mentor, and that's how I got into it, and then decided that I just wanted to work with current active drug users, as opposed to people in recovery. In North Carolina, we have one view of substance use pretty much, and it's been this way for a long time, that we have an abstinence-based view about substance use and addiction. So, if you've struggled with substance use, the answer is to use nothing, and you then call yourself an addict, and then you go to meetings or church or something to get yourself morally centered and do right. While I was in a 12-step program for a while, I struggled with the ideology of it, and I also struggled with the science behind it. So, understanding that I had been taught things that weren't true was complicated for me, and being told not to think for myself was even more complicated for me. I was not ready to buy into any kind of thinking that said that I should stop thinking and have other people think for me because my thinking was too distorted. One of the things you learn in school is that you can't understand something if you don't have a theory, and I really found this to be true with substance use and addiction. When you take away a 12-step theory, I didn't have anything to put back in, and this was really complicated for me because I didn't know how to see my own substance use, and I didn't understand how to look at the substance use of other people. And so this ended up being a pretty traumatic time for me trying to figure all of this out. And what harm reduction was saying was any positive change, that one drug didn't necessarily lead to another, that you could use one drug and maybe not another drug, you could go back and forth in and around the spectrum. And since there was no harm reduction where I lived, it really was up to me to find it. And one of the things that I wanted to do was create it for other people. There were messages that really that really allowed me to love myself in a different way, not have quite so much self-hatred, and hell, they were at least the truth that my problems are problems of the drug war, and not all problems of myself. We've been working in HIV prevention for 20 years now, and from the beginning our notion was to assist any positive change as a person described it for themselves. And generally there was a chaotic out of control drug use on the one hand we deal with as by incarcerating and killing, letting people die. And the other hand we have utter abstinence, which is not for many, many people a realistic outcome. The human species is an intoxicating one. So we said any positive change would allow us to deal with this middle ground. And in that middle ground there's so many opportunities for positive change with drug users because we've generally focused ourselves in the United States and elsewhere on causing as much harm as we could for as much money as we can. So there were plenty of fertile ground for change. Among the things we've done is initiate some of the first hepatitis vaccination efforts, now incorporating other vaccines such as flu, H1N1, pneumococcal, and tetanus and other things that that people are who might be interested in such vaccination. We've also been able to focus on overdose, which is the number one killer of people with HIV. And late 1996, we began a program asking our participants, would you like to have this medicine? And our participants taught us the important elements of a program that would include naloxone. People were thrilled at the idea. And slowly, very slowly it caught on. I had actually heard about it for the first time in Italy in 1995, the Red Cross there in Florence, was doing something regarding naloxone and they made it available over the counter. So the good idea, I think, from my knowledge initiated there. And all we did was bring it to the United States, put it in program form. And after learning from our participants, a number of extremely important things, what size vial to use, what syringes to use, how to do it and so forth. We rolled out our program in January of 2001. To date, we have seen over 15,000 people in providing education about this. And we have over 2000 reports of people reversing overdose in their friends and family. The Bush administration would say that preventing opiate overdose is something they don't want to do because they fear it will increase drug use. So in effect, the US government has been actively promoting death regarding overdose as well as other drug related issues. We said we can do better. Our participants were sharing with us that lives are being saved. And we've expanded this. I've actually revived five people myself. The first one was a woman who had come and her boyfriend had come to our outreach a number of times. She was running through one time and she heard us talking about overdose in the lock zone. And she mentioned to her boyfriend, one day they came to one of our sites and got some syringes and other equipment they went to inject. And she went out. He was horrified. He was dating this this woman who was 18 years old and from a very wealthy family in Chicago blonde hair, blue eyes. And she was unconscious and she was turning blue. And he didn't want to bring her to the hospital for fear of the police and being charged with murder, which happens in Chicago. He drove back to our site remembering what she had said about overdose. And then my colleagues and I came out, he was crying, please help. We went to the car. She looked dead as dead as anyone can look. And we began the process. She showed first thing you do is you you check to see that the person doesn't respond to painful stimulation such as knuckles on the lips or the chest. She did not. And so I drew up a CC of naloxone injected it into her shoulder. She had some fancy shirt on and I couldn't go open it up. My colleague couldn't unbutton it. So we just went right through the shirt. I leaned the chair back in the passenger seat and I breathe for her maybe three or four times. She her color got better very, very fast. Her boyfriend then became jealous. He said, you know, I can do that breathing. You don't this old man doesn't need to be kissing my girlfriend. And he began. He breathed for one time and she woke up and it sounded like this. You know, just like a baby being born or someone splashing you with cold water and she very slowly, you know, orient what's going on? You know, what are you people doing here? What? Why is my boyfriend the toughest nails Polish kid? Why is he crying? Why is his eyes red and swollen in his face full of tears? And we explained that she overdosed and she said, I didn't overdose. I said, look at your shirt. You see a little hole in the little blood bit of blood there. No, that could have happened from anything. And finally, she said, I said to her, what is your mouth tastes like? And she goes, it tastes like mushrooms and pizza. And I said, have you eaten mushrooms and pizza? She said, no. And then my colleague was holding the pizza that we were eating just before they came mushroom pizza. And that's all she wanted to know. She believed us and and then I spent the next half hour with her and her boyfriend, teaching them about overdose and how to help each other should it happen again. And it did. It happened a few times with them. And they revived each other. They're still alive and happy and healthy today. Naloxone looks exactly like water. So as I'm drawing it up, I'm saying, I wish to God this had gold flecks or something in it to make it look different, make it look extraordinary. But it didn't and you draw it up just on faith and you inject it and it works. And it's a miracle. It really is. It's the purest antidote in medicine. So I would say the number one reaction among people being revived is surprise. They just don't get it. And then they're told and they say, Oh my God, you know, because the facts are there and they begin to believe it. And oftentimes they're motivated to be protective of other people. They want to help others stay alive as they were helped staying stay alive. And they'll be the last one to use because they want to watch over people and they know what to do. And that kind of altruism that kind of concern with others is very catchy with this kind of program. And I think it's kept a lot of people alive. And the whole idea that drug users are are not caring are not helpful is insane. And there's nothing that proves it more dramatically than overdose prevention. So my help is it's integrated everywhere. There's HIV prevention everywhere. There's work with drug users, you know, naloxone isn't a magic bullet. If people are isolating because of the stigma of drug use, if people are, you know, you can't really use it on yourself too well. And it requires a relationship of some kind. Someone needs to be there to help you just as you help them. So that really implies we get rid of the stigma associated with drug use. It's a special relationship where you can say, I think I'm going to use, can you help me? But that's where we need to go. So this is the definition of who we are to unify and empower drug user unions across America to collaborate, thus providing a united platform, giving a voice to American drug users to address the harm created by the war on drugs at both a national and international level. To present drug users and the drug user agenda as an organized, strong and unified front against the war on drugs. Okay, let's vote on adopting this. Historically, it's been really hard in the United States to do and sustain user organizing, just because people would start something, but then somebody would get locked up, somebody would lose their housing, somebody would lose their job. And so in a really difficult environment, it's hard to create a sustainable organizing model. There have always been users in the harm reduction movement. When I started doing needle exchange, I was a heroin user, but we weren't organized as such we were just we just blended in. And now it's more possible to organize as drug users and have an independent voice. We don't have health care for all. And so without health care, and without the government involved in harm reduction, it leaves little room for people to have the services they need to really be healthy at all. When you don't have access to sterile supplies or naloxone, people are just struggling to stay alive. So it's very hard to be engaged in activism. With that said, there's been activism and a struggle for activism for over a decade in the United States. And so people have been working hard. The need for us to organize, you know, as drug users, you know, happened for us, you know, and for my involvement and experience in 2004, not too long before that time, drug users were denied access to hepatitis C treatment. Unless you can document you had three to six months clean, you can get treatment to hepatitis C. If you were a prisoner, forget about it. You know, but we organized ourselves, right, so that we would be vocal. You know, we would say that we were drug users, you know, and had a right, you know, to treatment, you know, had a right for respect and dignity, you know, and had a right, you know, I mean, to participate in the decisions that affect our lives, you know, as drug users, you know, so we went to various places where state and government officials were. And I would openly disclose and self-identify, you know, as a drug user, you can hear a pin drop. Okay. And I want to work my presentations. And I remember someone raising their hand and saying, you know, I'm a drug user, I have five years clean, and everybody clapped. And I looked at my partner, Jason at the time put a presentation and said, that's not quite what we meant, you know, and we had another opportunity, you know, to get vocal about our drug use and come out, you know, we had no applause, but we have a lot of laughter, you know, so we knew then that we needed to be vocal in challenging the stigma of HIV, AIDS, and drug use, you know, and that's when I came up with the name voices of community advocates and leaders of the New York users union, you know, that now serves as a voice for many to organize is to live for me. If we don't organize and stand up for better laws and and to tear down the stigmatizations, then there's no there's no organization that would do it for us and who better can do it than the users themselves. It's important that users stand up and have a voice. Historically, they have never they've never had a voice in their head at place. They've never been brought to the table when laws are made, you know, things are done around things that affect their lives. It's the same, the same thing with the civil rights movement, you know, women's suffrage as a group of people who are being, you know, immensely oppressed. Vocal is successful at getting having our voices out there. With overdose, we in conjunction with the drug policy alliance help pass a 911 Good Samaritan law and to to encourage people to call an ambulance as someone overdoses without being afraid of going to jail. We just had some major victories in the state capital passing some bills into law. One of the bills we were working on is this syringe access bill. The health code in New York stated that it was okay to have clean syringes distributed. And the penal code insisted that it was not legal to do that. So what we did was we sort of changed the language of the of the bill itself to reflect that the reconciliation was needed between those two agencies so that people would not be afraid to exchange needles without fear of police harassment, you know, and we've done that. One of our key recommendations is to ensure that every single New Yorker who needs a clean syringe can get access to a clean syringe. The Rockefeller drug laws, which were giving unwarranted numbers of prison time for minor drug offenses. So we got that repealed also. You go before judge with a nonviolent violation. They turn it into this amazingly big crime where you could get a maximum sentence of 25 years for a small amount of low or high grade heroin no matter what. And just being a user can get you 25 years. I would say that Rockefeller was out of his mind. Also the 30% rent cap, which allows people with HIV and our disability to pay 30% of their income towards rent so that they have other money free to take care of basic needs. I paid my rent today. And when I was doing it, I thought this could be the last time that I pay 72% of my disability on my rent the last time. Let's face it. Change comes from the grassroots. Change comes from activists like Wanda. Wanda in her leadership with all of her colleagues at Vocal have played a very special role. Yes. Yes, they've made their voices heard. Let's thank them for that because that's the right thing to do. It's what a democracy is supposed to be made of, that energy, that focus, that urgency. Yes, you're supposed to track down people like me and Albany and anywhere else you can find me. And let us know what you think because that's how things change as the essence of how things change. One of our main goals is to fight the stereotype that drug users are passive or incapacitated or unable to make opinions or shape policy. People who are involved in our group, they feel better about themselves. We're giving people a positive connection to their identity as drug users. They're actually doing something to help themselves and others. Combining that with a group of people who hopefully feel good about themselves working on making better for other people. The program that I worked with in San Francisco, we hire drug users and we pay them a salary. We don't give them, like, you know, proteams and stuff or stipends. We don't... It's just, it's so disrespectful. I think drug users should be paid for their information. Without them, you wouldn't have a job anyway. So pay them what they're worth. In 2000, I believe it was 13, we first formed what was the American Federation of Drug Users and from there, we went on to form the United States Alliance of Drug Users and from there, we formed the USU. Urban Survivors Union has really began to build our national union, which is really exciting. So in the last few years, we've held a national march. We have started a national reframe the blame campaign that is that is a movement against drug induced homicide laws. We've grown from five user unions to over 30 in the last couple of years. So we're growing at a really massive rate. Drug users are beginning to see that they need to come together in order to be more powerful and actually affect change. For me, the biggest achievement in the United States has been that an underground supervised injection facility has been running for... I think it's going on six years now in America. It's been research, it's been studied, it's been written up in medical journals and it's successful. There's no deaths, lives are reversed using naloxone if there's an overdose and this program continues to run and I think that's probably one of the biggest achievements I've seen in America in the drug user movement. We are doing beautiful, beautiful things. We have drug users who are building services and growing and I am growing and I'm growing with my friends and partners and that is not a place I ever thought I'd be but we have to do more. We cannot fight for harm reduction and not fight for racial justice. We cannot fight for harm reduction and not fight for disability justice. We cannot fight for harm reduction and not have an intersectional response. We cannot do this alone. Drug users, we must stand with our allies. We must work with our allies and we must not stop. We must not stop. The drug user rights movement is about human connection and resiliency to me so it's about fighting back. It's about us, it's about people understanding and seeing the truth and refusing to just buy the lie. I think it really is about taking control and changing the narrative. Drug user rights are human rights so for people that think that drug user rights are all about getting high that's not the issue. The issue is these are human rights issues. These are issues as to what I as a human being can do with my body and what we are allowed as you know and what we say about your rights as an individual and certainly in the United States drug user rights are also issues of racial justice so the way we have built the drug war and as an issue around race is truly problematic especially here in the south. The criminalization of drug users in the United States has been huge. As you know the United States is about 5% of the world's population and we have 25% of the world's prisoners right here. Just thinking about that is like whoa so we arrest more people in the United States for things like marijuana right. Low level crimes and we're working towards ending that practice but when we think about ending criminalization that has to do with drug use we have to think about how we replace some of that because we're talking about taking a lot of food of a lot of people's place when we talk about ending mass incarceration because that's what we're talking about and that's a 1.5 trillion dollar business ending up the drug war itself. So working towards dismantling that is going to be huge. Some of the major goals and overarching goals are certainly decriminalization legalization of drugs and ending the drug war ending this mass incarceration and connecting people to community and society. All we do is disconnect people in the United States. So if you are found to be a person who uses drugs and needs help we start with disconnecting you and I truly believe that addiction is the opposite of connection. So what we do is everything wrong to help a person. We disconnect people from their families. We disconnect people from their friends. We alienate people from work. We disconnect them from community and then we disconnect them from their freedom finally and when people finally have nothing left then they will use until they die and have nothing and feel completely disconnected and can really go into these negative places where really bad things happen. What we need to be doing is reconnecting people. When you see good people spending time in cages for holding a substance or having a substance when people who rape people and molest people and do real harm to folks are leaving jails much sooner it is really complicated to understand and it is also complicated to understand how we are sitting in a crisis where over 70,000 people died of overdose last year and we don't have solutions. I think the overdose epidemic in America is state sanctioned genocide. I think if they really wanted to stop the overdose epidemic they would and they haven't. They talk about it but it's just like their mouth moves, words come out and nothing happens. Without supervised injection facilities and decrim of drug possession nothing is going to change. Dan, are you sleeping? How can you sleep like that? What am I, Facebook? Live. Live stream on Facebook? Yeah. Hi everybody. So, I mean I've lost hundreds of people to the war on drugs. Whether it be overdose, my brother died of HIV, my lost friends to hepatitis C, lost friends during liver transplant, lost friends to suicide. Yeah, and some of the leaders in the harm reduction movement we've lost and we've lost a lot of them recently. I mean losing Dan was big for me. I can't really talk about it. Well certainly two of my mentors that are no longer with us are Becky Brooks and Dan Big. Certainly the people that sort of resonate with me the most and the people that I spent the most time with. I wouldn't be who I am without them and I wouldn't fight the way I do without them. I've had so many people I love die. My daughters died of overdose. I can't imagine what I would do if I wasn't fighting the drug war and if I wasn't involved in a drug user movement. This is absolutely what creates and keeps my connection to life and gives purpose. For a long time we've waited for our legislators to sort of make change. We're no longer waiting. We're moving forward with policies on the ground. Enables and then communities that go towards helping people who use drugs live. All the improvements, all the success Chicago Recovery Alliance is credited with is really not ours to take credit from. It's so simple. All we're doing is not hurting people. All we're doing is cooperating with drug users and assisting any positive change. It's just there's so many things we do. We do the thing that hurts the most instead of what helps that makes our work easy. But we hope to get to the point where we accomplish the easy things as a society and we get to the real difficult things. The human shame that is a very tough thing to bring out from within somebody. And hopefully people can accept that drug use are part of our species and we can move on from there.