MAY 31, 2010: TWO YEARS OF INACTION = EMERGENCY ACTION!

VICTORIA’S FIXED SITE NEEDLE EXCHANGE WAS EVICTED TWO YEARS AGO
Sick of seeing a health crisis on our streets?
JOIN HARM REDUCTION VICTORIA TO SAY:

==> **YES** <==
IN MY BACKYARD!!!!

May 31, 2010, 12:00 pm
Ministry of Health, 1515 Blanshard Street, Victoria, Coast Salish and Straits Salish Territories, B.C

Gather for food, music, and a lunch-hour street party!
Tell the Ministry of Health that two years of inaction is too long!

Let government and public health officials know we say YES to harm reduction services in our backyard!

REPLACE NIMBY (NOT IN MY BACKYARD) WITH YIMBY (YES IN MY BACKYARD)!
Victoria’s only fixed-site needle exchange was forced to close on May 31, 2008. Since then, the needle and syringe distribution in the City of Victoria remains inadequate and violates international health guidelines on HIV/AIDS prevention.

A needle exchange is an important component of comprehensive harm reduction services. Harm reduction services are essential health care service. People's lives are at risk without access to these services.

People who use illicit drugs have the same rights as any other citizen to safely access health care services when and where they need them. These rights are being violated.

The Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA), the City of Victoria, and the B.C. Ministry of Health are ALL complicit in violating the rights of thousands of community members.

HARM REDUCTION AND NIMBY
VIHA discontinued plans to open harm reduction services sites in two locations: on Pandora Street in June, 2008, and the Burnside-Gorge area in September, 2009. Government officials, VIHA and the City of Victoria appear to be paying close attention to the few Victoria residents who oppose having basic health services in “their backyards”. In doing so, they are ignoring the thousands who rely on harm reduction services and\or support harm reduction services.

HARM REDUCTION AND YIMBY
Denying our some of our community's most marginalized and stigmatized citizens access to essential health care services is unconscionable and a violation of peoples’ rights to health. Harm reduction services make cities safer for everybody. Come out and make the message clear: We say “YES” to harm reduction in our backyard!

ABOUT HARM REDUCTION VICTORIA (HRV)
Harm Reduction Victoria (HRV) is a collective of Victoria area residents that recognize that people who use illicit drugs face discrimination, criminalization, stigmatization and isolation. We believe that ending the prohibition of illicit drugs is the only way to stop the war on people who use drugs. We acknowledge that because the war on drugs is a war on the poor, our approach to health care must be integrated with strategies that ensure income, housing and supports for drug users.

Locally, HRV seeks to ensure that the highest quality health care is made accessible to all those who require harm reduction services. We believe that every person has the right to consistent, nonjudgmental accessible health care and that harm reduction is an essential part of health care provision. HRV stands in solidarity with people who use drugs in their struggle for justice and dignity and, in particular, with those who suffer from homelessness, discrimination and violence as a result of their status as a person who uses drugs.

HRV has four campaign demands:
1. Abolish the VIHA 'no-service area'
2. Establish fixed site needle exchanges
3. Create supervised consumption services
4. Adopt a new “Four Pillars” Strategy

For more information: www.harmreductionvictoria.ca
To get involved: victoria.harmreduction@gmail.com