this is a cage again
All the recommendations from the task force passed -unanimously, as is, no amendments. So the safe supply statement has been adopted by council:
“….we are all in this together.
Urgent action is required on multiple levels to prevent further deaths from drug poisoning. This includes advocating for a safe supply as well as supporting people in their chosen paths to wellness. We call upon health professionals, all levels of governments, and the public to join us in advocating for a safe supply of drugs, to protect and prevent further loss of our family members, friends, neighbours and loved ones.”
its really important that its “we” and “us”. its not Those People, or The Most Vulnerable. #SafeSupply isnt a competition. and stop building ‘models’. actually meeting people where they are can be really particular, and whoever is more comfortable will probably need to step out of their comfort zone. we are in this together. everybody keep six.
[what about decrim? that is also up to us. the substance itself – its a nothing. there’s a magic moral value attached to druuuuuugs, which is a direct consequence of many political choices intended to coerce, divide, dispossess, impoverish, terrify and imprison the vast majority of humanity – all those unwealthy, unwhite, unobeying, unfamilied, and so on. very little to do with Drugs; the war on drugs is itself the weapon.
because an illicit economy is unregulated, concentrated capitalism. it is the War of All Against All. its a cautionary metaphor, the Downtown Eastside, for those stepping dangerously out of line, or those so wounded and scarred by o canada’s systemic structural violence that the World Out There cannot bear to look, and you become unhumaned. shit happens. how’d you wind up down here?
turns out living in someone else’s metaphor sucks.
now friends are stealing from friends, bro from bro. as assistance remain the same, living gets more expensive, OH NO its Gentrification (hint : we are the gentry. look around, and look at where the old dope, the plant-based stuff, was/is produced. YEAH WE’RE THE GENTRY, GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS.)
as we get poorer, the supply becomes more degraded in the sense that there’s less actual [synthetic chemical compound] opioid. so people are out, and not high. its benzos. we’re full circle back to everyone in the neighbourhood being slammed with psych meds. except they’re made in a garage somewhere and bought online. in a few decades people will get their shit and know their dope because they will be able to customize a compound of choice and it will come out of a 3-D printer, but all of us will be dead.
we are all in this together.
what we dont have is shared knowledge. we have to know our dope. “fentanyl drug checking” completely misses the point and again is a Blame the Drug reaction, magical thinking. again, its prohibition that makes the green stuff deadly but this other green is the thing. or which is horse tranquilizer, or bathtub benzos, all of it bunk. for fucks sake.
the price on the street is the same because down here people are not only poor, but trapped. and angry, because people cant get high. because its not dope. all you know is that you’re trapped. the idea was Rat Park, but it’s clearly a cage again. and everybody knows it.
safe supply means a chance to put the brakes on this cycle (The Deathspiral, is what i call it). of course there will be druuuuugs on the street. but we have this moment – probably a brief moment – to decriminalize ourselves, to self-regulate our economy. we must decommodify dope. no one will do this for us. we cannot Demand it of anyone but ourselves.
for years we’ve all heard “this is how it is down here.”
that is not true. that is a choice. and this choice is ours now.
it does not have to be this way. not at all.
