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Organizing Drug Users in Communities of Color

Organizing Drug Users in Communities of Color . Louis Jones Users United & Harm Reduction Coalition United States. Burden of the War on Drugs. It is not drugs that are being arrested, prosecuted, imprisoned, stigmatized and marginalized – but people . ~Peter Sarosi. …In the Beginning.

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Organizing Drug Users in Communities of Color

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  1. Organizing Drug Users in Communities of Color Louis Jones Users United & Harm Reduction Coalition United States

  2. Burden of the War on Drugs It is not drugs that are being arrested, prosecuted, imprisoned, stigmatized and marginalized – but people. ~Peter Sarosi

  3. …In the Beginning

  4. Denying Treatment & Care • Hopeless, Harmless, Homeless • Perpetuating the oppression • Constantly institutionalized Caught by a cops = CRIMINAL Caught by agency = PATIENT

  5. Stigma was Challenged • Birthed from not talking, but whispering • Denial of basic rights • From using past responses to community actions (Black Panther, Young Lords…etc) • Motivated by loss of loved ones & lack of action

  6. Moved from Isolation Action

  7. Community Paradigm: Responding to Need • Work within the community • Grassroots • Democratic • Relevant • Effective • Stay focused on community • Each one, reach/teach one

  8. Response to Local Issue • Only happened recently (2004) • Broke the silence, disclosed & self-identified • Came together within own network of community • Birth of drug-user organizing • Drug users coming together • New York Users’ Union

  9. To Organize, Is to Live…

  10. Questions?

  11. Harm Reduction National Conference: Portland, OR November 2012 Visit HRC on Facebook and Twitter www.harmreductioncoalition.org

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