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‘IT’S NOT ALWAYS EASY TO ORGANISE AND
MOBILISE PEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS,’
said
Anastasia Teper of VOCAL-NY (Voices of
Community Activism Leaders), a New York-based
drug users’ union.
VOCAL was founded in 1997 as an
organisation aimed at finding housing for drug
users, but developed into a means of organising
and mobilising people who were substance users
and who were HIV positive. ‘It started with two
people and one organiser,’ she said.
‘The goal is to build the power of low-income
people who use drugs, and end the drug war –
which is very much a racial and economic justice
issue. We have to find the fire in the belly of the
people who are affected by these issues, and help
to empower and organise them.’
The organisation recruited through member-
led outreach, targeting people at needle
exchanges and other services and then with
‘relentless follow-up’ by phone and in person, she
said. ‘Mobilising people is not easy – they can
have a multitude of issues. But we follow up all
new contacts, creating meaningful opportunities
for people, and we also want to develop people
into leaders – learning while doing.’
A key issue was empowerment, she told the
conference. ‘How do you speak to authority if
you’ve been put down all your life? That’s a very
difficult transition to make.’
VOCAL-NY was able to show people that their
participation would ‘result in real and concrete
improvement in the lives of people who use drugs’,
she said, and it had carried out successful
programmes around securing housing for people
with HIV, as well as police harassment for syringe
possession.
‘Seventy per cent of the people surveyed by
VOCAL had been arrested for syringe poss-
ession,’ she told delegates. ‘And 87 per cent of
them had been carrying documentation saying
they were participants in official syringe exchange
programmes.’
The organisation had held rallies and secured
the attention of the media, and eventually a
syringe access law had been passed in 2010.
Among its current campaigns, meanwhile, were
the mandatory offer of hepatitis C testing for
people of the ‘baby boomer’ generation and
marijuana decriminalisation.
‘The issues are really deeply felt, because we’re
really trying to end the war on drugs,’ she said.
Voices of the community
HIGHLIGHTS
Tuesday 11 June
MAJOR SESSIONS
Alfa Room
9.00–10.30
Financing of harm reduction
11.00–12.30
Human rights violations: who is to
blame and what should be done?
14.00–15.30
Sex work and harm reduction
16.00–17.30
From paper to practice: preventing
viral hepatitis among people who
use drugs
17.30–19.00
Evening workshops on:
Strengthening harm reduction
workers and values; overdose
basics and training of trainers; and
shaping international drug policy.
Dialogue Space
11.00–12.00
: Marijuana reform as
harm reduction in the USA
12.00–13.00
: Demonstration of foil
pipe making techniques
13.00–14.00
: Naloxone – stopping
overdose! The launch of
naloxoneinfo.org
14.00–15.00
: Europe and harm
reduction project launch
15.00–16.00
: ‘New’ recovery
narratives and harm reduction
16.30–17.30
: The use of ‘direct
action’ in harm reduction
DAILY UPDATE
Tuesday 11 June 2013