Sunday 31 August 2014

International Overdose Awareness Day

                                            (Frank beside the CounterFIT drug users memorial)

Today, August 31, is International Overdose Awareness Day and while there are more and more calls for access to naloxone a life saving antidote to opioid overdose which people need access too,  we need to also include a call for other methods of prevention of overdose deaths.

We need an end to this capitalist system that sees profits over people and has forced people to live in the very conditions that increase people’s susceptibility to overdose. We need an end to war,  and the classist and incredibly racist drug war. An end to colonization, poverty, mass incarceration, racism, homophobia, exploitation, and patriarchy.

When I think of the various reasons the people I have known, whom I loved and who have died, it isn’t just about whether they had access to naloxone, naloxone wouldn't have saved all of their lives. It is because they didn’t have housing. It’s because they were aboriginal and they were personally and deeply impacted by genocide and colonization, of the 60’s scoop and the residential school system. It was because they lived in poverty and coped with mental health issues where services were lacking and out of reach for them to access. It was because they were incarcerated and forced to be sober and came out of prison and used. It’s because they had their children taken away by the classist, racist children's aid system that makes it impossible to ever get your kids back. It’s because they used without anyone knowing and hid their use because of stigma and shame perpetuated by a society that looks down on people who use drugs. It’s because they had health issues that they couldn’t get treatment for because of a system that discriminates against them and isn’t universal and accessible free from judgment.  It’s because they lived in deep poverty, which had negative health implications making them sick. It’s because they lived with HIV and Hep C and couldn’t get access to meds that could save their lives because they used drugs, and on and on.

When I think of all the reasons why people I know have died from overdose I think about the systems of oppression that we are forced to live under. That criminalize people for what they put in their body and disproportionately target people primarily based on their race and class. When I think about international overdose awareness day I think it’s time we started to expand our demands. Our right to live free from discrimination, criminalization, poverty, war, and colonization. Where people cannot only be surviving but thriving. Where everyone can actually access our basic needs: housing, food, water, health. Where our bodies aren’t profitable and our lives are seen as valuable no matter who we are.

The people I have known and lost are dead because of the systems we are forced to live under. We need to come together and build solidarity amongst each other to fight to live in a better world where we are not governed by the interests of the few. The few who are destroying our world and destroying people’s lives. We need to continue to build resistance in our homes, in our neighbourhoods, and amongst each other and build better systems that are non-hierarchical and inclusive.




Until All Of Us Are Free



Zoƫ