Beyond Prohibition

Healing Our Addicted City
Location: The WISE Hall, 1882 Adanac St.
Thursday, April 10th, 2008 7-9 pm
Admission: by donation



Vancouver has long struggled to deal with its well-known drug problem,
particularly as it affects residents of the Downtown East Side. Past
approaches have focused the majority of our resources on law
enforcement, to little or no success. This “war on drugs” approach has
proven to be a failure as it has not achieved any of its objectives and
is responsible for the creation of additional social and health
problems. What is needed now is to move the discussion beyond concerns
with prohibition and develop a clear understanding of what a
post-prohibition world looks like.

The time has come to take action on establishing a compassionate,
rational and workable strategy for healing the lives of the severely
addicted and improving our city as a whole.

Join us for a discussion on how we can best move forward to stabilize
the lives of drug users and create evidence-based drug policy.

/Panelists:/

*Mark Haden *works for the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, and has
almost 25 years’ experience working with drug and alcohol programs. He
has published numerous works on the issue of drug policy and the
regulation of illegal drugs, and currently supervises the addiction
staff at the Pacific Spirit Community Health Centre.

*Ann Livingston* moved to the Downtown Eastside in 1993, and has
witnessed first-hand the damage perpetuated by the “war on drugs”. Since
then, she has committed herself to advocating on behalf of people who
use drugs, eventually founding VANDU in 1998. She is also a founding
member of Pivot Legal Society and is a member of Vancouver’s Beyond
Prohibition Coalition.

*Jerry Paradis* served as a Court of B.C. judge from 1975 until his
retirement in 2003. Over the years, he came to realize the futility and
harm caused the policy of prohibition. Since retirement, he has chosen
to join the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition in order to speak
out about the failure of our existing drug policies.