Perspectives on Decriminalization - Les perspectives sur la décriminalisation

#decriminalization #safesupply #safersupply
Summary of panel discussion on decriminalization:
-How criminalization of people who use drugs affects the individual and their families
-Why the feds and the provinces fail to get it right
-How we can move together to ensure decriminalization legislation is enacted.
Dr. Christy Sutherland is a family doctor and diplomat of the American Board of Addiction Medicine who works in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side providing care to Canada’s most vulnerable population. Dr. Sutherland is the Medical Director of the Portland Hotel Society where she leads a team of physicians and nurses who are embedded in low barrier, harm reduction projects. She received her MD at Dalhousie University and completed her Family Medicine Residency at UBC in 2010. Dr. Sutherland was recognized as the 2018 British Columbia Family Physician of the Year, as well as the recipient of a City of Vancouver Award for Excellence in 2019.
Leslie McBain, Co-Founder Moms Stop the Harm, Family Lead BCCSU, bereaved mother
Leslie is the co-founder and director of Moms Stop the Harm, a national organization dedicated to ending the failed war on drugs. MSTH advocates for the decriminalization of people who possess illicit substances and for the legal regulation of pharmaceutical drugs.
Wendy Stevens is the Peer Operations Coordinator with Vancouver Coastal Health’s Overdose Emergency Response Team. She moved to Vancouver from Victoria in 1999 and is of Indigenous/ settler ancestry. Wendy is also a person with lived experience with substance use, sex trade work and HIV. She has been off of street substances for 10 years and is currently on an OAT (Opioid Antagonist Therapy). Much of her work involves educating health care providers on Trauma Informed Care, Harm Reduction, Stigma, Substance Use, How to Work with People who are Using Substances, HIV POC training etc. using lived experience, professional experience and formal education.

[@maefenner8512]

As BC moves to decriminalization a year after this was posted, I want to thank you all for your dedication and compassion to people who need a safe supply. I found this webinar very informative. Thank you Dr.Sutherland for putting dignity first when giving your patients primary care. I feel today more than ever treating people with Dignity is essential to moving forward to wellness. My condolences Leslie on the loss of your son. Thank you for co founding MSTH to help so many others. Thank you Wendy for taking your journey and using it to help others. It's people like all of you that help my sister stay alive today while using from a safe supply in a safe place.
My hope moving forward is more information like what was presented here becomes widely accessible and a greater understanding is achieved and more tools become available for healing.