[012] "We’ve Been Trying Our Best To Save Lives"
Encampment residents in Toronto, v3: On the unsanctioned sacrifices of drug users and advocates, and the solitary drifting of those we love, "absolved and free," in death.
Hello, Tired Ones,
Another week, another sign of life, another reason that showing up’s still worth it.
In my work as a writer and designer for culture change, I come across important stories about progress that’s actually working for people.
They help us to remember: before there was bureaucratic care, or self-care, there was simply, well, care.
So come on in, sit down. For the next few minutes at least, there’s no rush. It’s a new week, after all.
December’s care workers: Encampment residents (and neighbours) in Toronto
“When his boat snapped loose/ from its mooring, under/ the screaking of the gulls…”
—This week’s poet, Stanley Kunitz.
Sourcing notes: Photo by Ryan Hayes, from the blog art & social movements.
—
There are many reasons to celebrate this year, despite it all. As a lapsed Christian, my instinct at Christmastime is still to reach for joy.
Well, joy and grief are gonna have to learn to play nice this year. There just isn’t any other way.
I like to remember at this time that Jesus was an economic freedom-fighter – most certainly not blond-and-blue-eyed, by the way – who spent his days standing alongside sex workers and the unhoused. Merry That, please.
A song, for pairing
The Weight of My Words, a remix of the King’s of Convenience track, by Four Tet that same year.
The ambient DJ distills pure urgency from an otherwise airy piece of orchestral tape on the songwriting duo’s debut. Listen to more.
A healthy idea, to chew on
PERSPECTIVE: ZOË DODD, an essay as part of Myseum Toronto’s 2019 festival, Revisionist Toronto. Showcased Feb, 28, 2019, to March 31, 2019.
On the drug users and advocates fighting in the trenches of the drug war, like the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society, whose unsanctioned Overdose Prevention Site paved the way for new institutional funding and regulations:
The lobby of the health centre I have worked at since 2006 was bustling with people who used drugs, hanging out in the lobby, accessing the needle exchange, attending programs and events. So many of them are dead now. Raffi [Balian], the program coordinator and founder of Counterfeit, he’s gone too. Their names engraved in the 5-foot copper flame which stands erect outside South Riverdale Community Health Centre – dedicated to the lives of people in the East end of Toronto who have died as a result of the drug war.
Raffi would say each time someone dies, we have failed them. That’s a lot of weight to carry on our shoulders. I can’t carry that weight. I already carry the deep scars of loss and a very broken heart which is constantly being shattered. We aren’t responsible for the oppressive system we are forced to live in, but we are responsible to try and change it. We didn’t fail Raffi, he died from the toxic drug supply and we’ve been trying our best to save lives as governments shirk their responsibility to help us.
How do you witness so much death, that you know is preventable and do nothing? On August 12, 2017, a group of drug users, health care and harm reduction workers and allies set up tents in Moss Park to respond to the overdose crisis which has taken the lives of thousands of people. By the end of 2018 there were 9 supervised consumption/ overdose prevention sites open in Toronto, all working to respond to this public health emergency. The site of survival ran illegally in the park for a year before moving inside, and saved 251 lives. Last month, the site reversed 90 overdoses and had 3,000 visits. It waits for approval to continue to operate under the new conservative government.
[Editor’s note: An update—as of publication, there remains nine sites operating in Toronto under a special federal exemption to the Controlled Drug and Substances Act, with limited funding from the provincial government. Meanwhile, Toronto Overdose Prevention Society (TOPS) pointed out in June that no additional sites have been opened in shelters, respite centres or hotel settings since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and I’ve seen no evidence to suggest otherwise today. TOPS maintains a Gofundme page that supports their work, and is the focal point for supporting a range of allied coalitions in Toronto.]
Reversing overdoses is not enough – the solution to this emergency is ending prohibition and providing a safe drug supply. We can’t blame people for using drugs to soothe their broken hearts, to disrupt the peril of life, to manage their pain, to work their bodies like machines to make an income, to dance all night and feel some joy.
I miss feeling something longer than sorrow.
And so, we wait for the emergency response to come.
A good practice, to freeze for later
We’ve Been Trying Our Best To Save Lives—As Governments Shirk Their Responsibility To Help Us.
Zoë Dodd is only one advocate among many on the frontlines, who are over-stretched beyond any reasonable limits, even as they’re being ignored by official decision-making tables. Dodd herself is well-known for her public confrontation of Justin Trudeau as part of a Vice Canada panel in April, 2017. Her critique was blistering and direct – though I would add, supremely respectful given the subject matter, and the losses she’s suffered. When asked by Vice how it felt to address him face-to-face, she connected her personal experience to the overall lack of access that her peers face. Then, in an eery turn, she alluded to the SARS crisis as a counter-example of how quickly government can act:
It felt therapeutic, honestly, to be able to speak directly to him. A lot of us on the frontlines don't have seats at the table in the overdose action plan. There's a lot of doctors, researchers; yet people like myself who are in it day to day and have experience, who are experts as well and have really good, sound advice to give, we are not at the table. It felt good to be able to say directly to him what they need to do because they're not doing enough. I can't handle the lack of response from all of government.
I work in health care. So when SARS happened, they created networks, they had all these meetings. They didn't go to the public and say, "We found the solution for stopping SARS is handwashing—let's hold public consultation for the next 15 days to see how the public feels about handwashing." But with anything to do with drug users, we have to go through all these things, even in an emergency, to get advice from the public. It slows it down. They got a handle on SARS really quickly; only 44 people died.
Sourcing notes: Meet the Harm Reduction Worker Who Called Out Trudeau on the Opioid Crisis, Vice Canada, April 25, 2017.
There were calls throughout the summer for Canada to de-criminalize simple drug possession – from the Premier of BC, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, and Liberal MP Nathaniel Erksine-Smith, among so many other leaders in public health, medicine and public safety. But still, Trudeau has made no commitments to undercut the illicit market for opioids. Meanwhile, the decades-long overdose crisis crashes into the other rolling waves of crisis, from housing and mental health, to inequality and public health.
As Dodd pointed out in her 2017 confrontation with Trudeau, Portugal stands up as a successful model to draw from, ever since de-criminalizing drug possession over a decade ago. The investigative podcast Crackdown, whose editorial boards is made up of drug users and advocates, provided its own optimistic review on the Portuguese model in May, 2019. But even that internationally-lauded case study, they found, wasn’t free from the contradictions of the international drug war. While prohibition has ceased on the demand side, it remains in effect on suppliers. So while you won’t go to jail for holding under a gram of heroine, the people you got it from are still part of an unregulated organized crime ring. The realities of black market economics have frustrated the progress you might expect towards a safer supply for users. The host Garth Mullins closes with an insightful analysis of the Portuguese experience, drawing from his own experience of using for decades. Come to think of it, his analysis of institutionalized reform could just as easily illuminate Ontario’s experience with safe injection sites – which were illegal, until they became so popular.
Forty-five years ago, there was a revolution against fascism in Portugal. Twenty years ago, there was a revolution against the drug war. But it’s not complete. Drugs are still illegal in Portugal. Drug users are still marginalized. Vancouver and Portugal both did something amazing 20 years ago: in Vancouver it was the fight for a safe injection site. But those moments have become calcified, institutionalized. In some ways, activists have been written out or tokenized.
Meanwhile the crisis deepens, overwhelming North America and creeping across Europe. […]
We need to empty those jails of drug users. Canada needs to stop arresting 100,000 people every year for drug possession. But it can’t stop there. Drug user activists in Canada and Portugal – and everywhere else – we know that the world needs a safe, legal drug supply.
Those moments in history – defeating fascism or decriminalizing drugs – they’re beacons; they show what’s possible. We need to remember that revolutionary spirit.
Sourcing notes: Episode 5: The Portugal Paradox. Crackdown podcast. May 29, 2019.
“We’ve been trying our best to save lives.”
A poem, to cleanse the palate
“The Long Boat” by Stanley Kunitz.
It begins:
When his boat snapped loose
from its mooring, under
the screaking of the gulls…
On the solitary drifting of those we love, “absolved and free… with the family ghosts,” in death:
somehow he felt absolved and free
of his burdens, those mottoes
stamped on his name-tag:
conscience, ambition, and all
that caring.
He was content to lie down
with the family ghosts
in the slop of his cradle,
buffeted by the storm,
endlessly drifting.
Peace! Peace!
To be rocked by the Infinite!
As if it didn't matter
which way was home;
as if he didn't know
he loved the earth so much
he wanted to stay forever.
Something sweet, for the road
And now, a presumably now-happy baby—saying what we’re all thinking.
That's all for this week.
Remember: Drink when you're thirsty, nap when you can.
Kind regards,
Chris Connolly
Manager, Personalized Care
(Acting Director, Standardized Care)
Humane Resources Division
The Dept. of Emotional Labour