Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2015)
News Page 10 DRUG WAR, from page 9 inevitably hijacks people and takes them over, turns them into monsters and so on, that’s just not true. It didn’t happen to all the people that bought it over the counter. What’s causing the compulsive use that you see in some people, which is very disturbing and tragic, is that terrible inner need. There’s this very interesting experiment in Australia, where they’ve been prescribing drugs that are like the methadone equivalent to meth. There is a parallel to the Swiss heroin prescription; you don’t see people developing psychosis or the things that appear after people are illegally using meth in some cases. There are what are called drug consumption rooms in some parts of the world. For example, in Vancouver, there’s a .place where addicts can go in and take then- drugs and be monitored by doctors. And obviously if things go wrong, they can be looked after, and also while they’re in the regulated space, they’re always told, “When you’re ready to stop, we’re here to help you; we’re here to support you.” I would experiment with that option. That option might not work. We need to find out E.G.: Are we really in the last days o f the war on drugs, as the title o f your book suggests, or do we still have a long way to go? J.H.; Some places are in the last days of the war on drugs, and other places aren’t. What we have to do is organize together as citizens, demand it and persuade our fellow citizens, because they have perfectly legitimate fears and totally understandable anxieties. There was a homeless street addict named Bud Osborn, who was watching his friends die all around him. He lives in a part of Vancouver called the Downtown Eastside. It has the highest concentration of drug addicts in North America. Addicts would hide from the police and use their drugs behind dumpsters or in hidden corners, and if you’re shooting up and you’re hidden and you overdose, no one will see and your body will be found dead hours later. Bud thought, I can’t just watch my friends die, but also, I’m a homeless junkie, what am I going to do? SISTERS flFTHE Street Roots inalienable right to life, and that includes the right to safe injecting rooms. I think the people of Oregon are compassionate and caring people, and I think if there was a comparable movement there, it would be just as successful. E.G.: I f you had 30 seconds to try to make the argument for drug legalization, what argument would you use? J.H.: If you speak to people about why they are in favor of drug prohibition, almost always, it is because they don’t want people to become addicted, and they don’t want kids to use drugs, to which I always say the truth, which is, I completely agree with you. Those are things that massively motivate me. The only disagreement is the policy you’re supporting doesn’t achieve those goals and, in fact, takes us farther away from them. PHO TO BY S H A N N O N STAPLETON/REUTERS And there’s a different policy, which if you Maricopa County, Ariz., inmates march for chain gang duty in 2003. Johann Hari spent time look at these resujts in different parts of the with one o f the county's female chain gangs. The inmates, who are mostly drug addicts, picked up roadside trash and dug graves while the public jeered at them. Hari says Maricopa County world, they achieve those goals. Fred Martens was a very right-wing, Sheriff Joe Arpaio's tactic o f humiliation only deepens his inmates' propensity for addiction. undercover drug cop in the ’70s, and he. had a kind of epiphany one day. He was staking these people?” And he went in, sat with He got together a lot of the addicts (and out a drug dealer in plainclothes in Wayne, addicts, incognito, in the Downtown asked), “Why don’t we arrange a patrol? N.J., and a kid came up to him and said, Eastside and just listened. “Hey mister, I’m too young, they won’t let We’ll draw up a timetable, and we’ll patrol He was blown away. He’d never met the alleyways, and we’ll look in the places me buy alcohol in this store. Will you go in addicts. He didn’t know their lives were like that people hide, and if someone’s and buy me something for me?” And Fred this. And he held a press conference, and he said, “No, get out of here,” and so the kid overdosing, we’ll call an ambulance.” said he’s never going to speak about People were a bit skeptical, but they went up to the drug dealer and bought addiction again without having the addicts started doing it, and the death toll from drugs from him instead, because drug there, and he was going to open a safe Downtown Eastside overdose began to dealers don’t ask for ID. injection room in North America and have Fred had this realization, that legalization significantly fall over the next two months, ♦the most compassionate drug policies in puts a barrier b-etweefl'kids and drufes That — Which was great in itself, but also the North America. doesn’t currently exist. Lots of evidence addicts started to think about themselves When I went to the Downtown Eastside, exists that kids find it considerably easier to differently. They started to think, “You know it had been 10 years since they started this get marijuana than alcohol because the what? Maybe we’re not the pieces of crap experiment, and (drug-related fatality) rates people who control the alcohol trade in our everyone says we are. Maybe we’re people were down by 80 percent, and average life culture pay a big price if they sell to kids. who can do something.” expectancy had increased by 10 years, which It’s very interesting how they won that They had learned about safe injection is virtually unheard of in medicine. argument in Switzerland. What they did is rooms in Frankfurt, Germany, and lots of I would say to anyone reading this, who they explained some people think other places, and it had virtually ended thinks the drug war is a catastrophe but legalization means anarchy and chaos. death from overdose in those places. They Actually,what we have now with the drug thought, “Well, we’ve got to have that here.” thinks, “What can I do?” You can’t think of a more powerless person in our culture than a war is anarchy and chaos. We have unknown The mayor of Vancouver at the time was homeless street addict, and because of what criminals selling unknown chemicals to this quite right-wing politician called Philip Bud started, thousands of people who would unknown users all in the dark, filled with Owen. They decided to start stalking him have died lived. The Canadian Supreme violence and disease. Legalization is a way and demanding an injection room. Court has now ruled that addicts have an of restoring order to that chaos. One day, Philip said, “Who the hell are Better health lDAD.org here for you Delivering physical, behavorial health and dental health care for oyer 230,00(3 children/; families and individuals on the Oregon Health We’re now open Saturdays! ll Please note new hou) Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 2:30pm ... Plan i n the .Portland Tri-County area. T o g e th e r w e a re health www.heaUhshareoregon.org
