International Drug Users Day, marked on November 1, is very near and dear to my heart. I’ve lost so many people who were close to me, through harms of drug prohibition such as overdose, blood-borne diseases or injection-related infections. I’ve been lucky to survive myself.
Today, like every year, I’ll take some time to reflect on these preventable deaths, and to grapple with grief I’ve barely had time to process before learning of the next tragedy. But remembering the loved ones and brave advocates we’ve lost is not the primary purpose of this day.
“International Drug Users Day is a day when we as the drug-using community are reminded to celebrate and feel pride in our identities and behaviors,” Judy Chang told Filter. “This is one of the hardest things to do in a world that tells us, as people who use drugs, that we should somehow be ashamed of who we are, when on the contrary we are an incredibly strong, resilient group and community of people that have done, and do, so much incredible work everyday for our communities.”
Chang, a friend and colleague of mine, is the executive director of the International Network of People Who Use Drugs (INPUD), a peer-led organization that defends the health and rights of drug users, challenging stigma, discrimination and criminalization. Based in Milan, Italy, she works closely with people who use drugs across the world.
INPUD, Chang explained, is “supporting grassroots organizations, networks and individuals from the drug-using community to mobilize around International Drug Users Day, as we want to showcase the work, ingenuity and creativity of the global movement.”
“What makes me proud to be a drug user is the strength and resilience it takes to survive under prohibition.”
This mix of activism and celebration means a lot to me as a drug user. People who use stigmatized, criminalized drugs often feel unable to be vocal about their own use, but will still cheer on these efforts from the sidelines. That used to be me.
“Like many drug users, it’s taken me some time to be proud and out about my drug user identity,” Chang said. “I am proud of being a drug user, not only because I feel that drugs of all kinds have expanded my mindset, worldview and experiences, but also [because they’ve] helped me through difficult times.”
“Most importantly, what makes me proud to be a drug user, is the strength and resilience it takes to survive under prohibition,” she continued. “No one but a drug user understands the hard work, struggle and determination it takes to be a drug user. Since I’ve been part of, and connected, and working together with the community, I’ve only become more proud of us all.”
It’s only because of people like Judy Chang that I feel able to be open and honest about my own use today.
Another person doing invaluable work in this area is Atika Juristia. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, she’s the founder and CEO of the nonprofit J Healthcare Initiative Organization, and is also affiliated with YouthRise.
It’s about telling moms that “it is ok to open up about their drug use and not to be closeted.”
Juristia is a passionate fighter for the rights of people who use drugs, and that’s informed by her own lived experience. She was precariously housed just at the time when the street supply of heroin here in Canada was transitioning to fentanyl. She witnessed so much harm due to the Iron Law of Prohibition that she felt she had to do something about it.
Among these efforts, J Healthcare Initiative started a circle for a particularly stigmatized population: mothers who use drugs. They called it Motherhood Unfiltered, and it offers support in dealing with many issues, from overdose to interactions with child protective services.
More than that, it’s about telling moms that “it is ok to open up about their drug use and not to be closeted,” Juristia told Filter.
She believes in that for herself, too. “I take prescription stimulants and I’m proud of it; it saved my life, and I’m not planning on getting abstinent from it.”
“We love our mothers who use drugs,” Juristia continued. For International Drug Users Day and beyond, “we’re going to do more campaigns about Motherhood Unfiltered for moms who use drugs, for women who use drugs.”
Depending on where you live and how you’re situated under prohibition and stigma, there can be huge barriers to being publicly open, and I would never criticize anyone for choosing not to be. But people who are able to do this, perhaps because they have more privilege, are doing a service for the rest of us, as prominent advocates like Louise Vincent and Dr. Carl Hart have pointed out.
We should reject the guilt or shame imposed on us for being resilient, resourceful and badass.
We need to get out of the shadows if we’re to be heard. So the main purpose of today, for me, is for drug users who can to be loud, proud and prominent. We must refuse to be second-class citizens. We should reject the guilt or shame imposed on us for being resilient, resourceful and badass. Considering all we’ve been made to endure, we should be proud as hell.
On this day, above all, we may be able to come as we are. We may be able to show people who don’t understand substance use that not everyone needs to stop.
People use drugs for a wide range of reasons, whether to enhance the good times or cope with the bad. If the only consequences of using drugs were negative, why would anyone ever do them?
A lot of us like ourselves much better on drugs—find ourselves more creative, more productive, funnier or more confident. In this, we’re not so different from all those people who openly rely on legal drugs like caffeine and alcohol in various situations. For so many of us, drugs are a huge part of our identity and help make us who we are.
I feel like I try to embody that spirit 365 days a year, but it’s not always easy with family, relationships and work. Writing is one way I can be open, in seeking to reduce the structural, social and internalized stigma that I and so many others have experienced for so long.
“We are a safety net for each other.”
Forming communities as drug users helps us know we’re not alone, but it’s also the primary way of keeping one another safe through mutual aid.
“We save each other’s lives by administering naloxone, test drugs for each other, demand and run drug consumption spaces and in some instances, put our own freedom at risk to make sure there is a safe supply of drugs,” Chang said. “We are a safety net for each other.”
I have overdosed multiple times recently. If it wasn’t for the love and support of other drug users, I would be dead. On two of those occasions, I was saved not by a health care practitioner or paramedic, but by a fellow drug user—familiar with overdose response techniques like rescue breathing and the jaw thrust maneuver, and practicing compassion.
As a drug user, I would never leave another drug user behind. That’s our code. We may not have too many friends and allies, but we have each other. We should embrace and embody that solidarity, and take pride in it. That is what International Drug Users Day should be all about.
Photograph by Luis Quintero via Pexels
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