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Photo: "Coping with triggers" by Gordon Matthews,
2nd place, Hope in Shadows, 2005. “This is in my mirror
because I look at the mirror every morning and it is a constant
reminder of my struggles: addiction.”
It is estimated that
30 percent of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is addicted
to illicit drugs, with approximately 5,000 injection drug
users alone residing within the ten city blocks that border
the neighbourhood.
Along with mental illness,
disabilities, and childhood abuse, drug users must also battle
extremely high rates of HIV (35%), and Hepatitis C (90%).
Despite evidence that prevention,
treatment, support and harm reduction are the most effective
solutions, government still relies on law enforcement as its
primary remedy.
Pivot’s objective
Support positive legal and social change to
improve the lives of persons addicted to illegal drugs. |
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Pivot's achievements:
Safe injection site
In 2003, Pivot intervened in Supreme Court on
behalf of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU)
to successfully defend a health centre for drug-addicted persons
under challenge by a local merchant’s association.
Pivot successfully launched a legal campaign
to reopen a downtown needle exchange, which had been shut
down by police under false pretences.
Pivot provided legal support for the unofficial
safe injection site which operated in the Downtown Eastside
prior to the opening of the goverment-funded safe injection
facility.
[ Pivot's
achievements in other issue areas ]
Current projects:
Heroin challenge
Mount a legal challenge to the Controlled Drug
and Substances Act that bans posession of small amounts of
Heroin for personal use, based on the equality provisions
of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Future plans:
Addiction treatment
Publish a report demonstrating the overwhelming
lack of addiction treatment, and prepare a legal challenge
to the current discriminatory shortage.
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