As part of the “Support, Don’t Punish Global Day of Action” on June 28, several Sudbury community groups met in Memorial Park in order to advocate for those who use substances, and educate those who want to better understand the challenges of the so-called war on drugs.
Organized by the Réseau ACCESS Network, there were also education booths from Sudbury Workers’ Education and Advocacy Centre, Black Lives Matter Sudbury, the Sudbury Action Centre for Youth (SACY), Monarch Recovery Services, the Sex Workers Advisory Network of Sudbury, Myths and Mirrors Community Arts and more.
Kaela Pelland, director of peer engagement for Réseau ACCESS Network, told Sudbury.com that “Support, Don’t Punish” is a message to support drug policy change in a way that truly helps people.
“Support people who use drugs rather than punish people who use drugs,” said Pelland, noting some countries punish substance use with the death penalty. “It’s a call to action to end the war on drugs globally, it’s about supporting those who use substances in a care-based situation, like health care, rather than using the justice system and criminalization to control substance use.”
Pelland said health care support and harm reduction are evidence-based supports that not only allow for safer consumption, but for a decrease in sexually-transmitted blood borne illnesses, like HIV and Hepatitis.
“Harm reduction is an evidence based approach that has been in effect since 1989; for far longer than that, folks were breaking the law to hand out free sterile syringes,” said Pelland. “And since then, the research has grown and grown in support of harm reduction.”
She said the change in approach will also help the prejudice and stigma that prevent people who use drugs from seeking help, should they wish.
“The fact of the matter is, substance use has existed for time immemorial, it's not going anywhere, and the War on Drugs has only pushed people who use substances into more isolated areas, it has caused significant stigma for people,” said Pelland. “People don't always feel comfortable asking for help or being open about their substance use. “
She said this leads to people using substances in secret, and “they end up dying because there is no one to check on them.”
Pelland said having safe consumption sites is a great way for the community to use substances in a sterile manner, while also being connected to support if that's what they choose to do.
“And we're seeing that even with all the barriers that exist at the safe consumption site, people are able to see the quality of care they will receive, and it’s allowing folks to get past those barriers,” said Pelland, referring to the lack of provincial funding, and the legal requirements for the site, like security, that may make it less desirable for vulnerable people.
Pelland also said that each and every person has a relationship with substances, from legal to illegal, and that is the focus of their educational component: that moralizing is not helpful. “Whether you have chosen a legal substance or an illegal one, the motivation is often the same,” she said. “But those who chose what society has deemed legal, have safe supply.”
This is the biggest issue in Sudbury right now, she said. The substances themselves are adulterated, “cut” with other substances, making it a crapshoot as to which substance is being consumed.
“Moralizing one substance over the other has gotten us to where we're at now, which is mass drug toxicity, mass preventable death and mass trauma that has impregnated the community of people who use drugs,” said Pelland. “Even when someone is doing everything right, and taking every precaution, when you don’t know what you’re purchasing because of criminalization, that’s why people are dying, and research is showing that it can be different.”
She said that while there needs to be community groups and harm reduction outreach, there also needs to be policy change from a “macro level down,” to truly make a difference.
You can find out more about Support. Don’t Punish on their website, found here.
Jenny Lamothe covers vulnerable and marginalized populations for Sudbury.com.
