Pubdate: Tue, 24 Feb 2015
Source: Vancouver 24hours (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Vancouver 24 hrs.
Contact: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/letters
Website: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3837
Author: Stefania Seccia
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?135 (Drug Education)

SURREY LECTURE SERIES TO TACKLE DRUG 'LIES'

A Surrey education series aims to be an honest look at substance 
abuse and addiction to rectify what organizers view are 'lies' told 
in drug education classes.

The Surrey Area Network of Substance Users - a group of former and 
current substance users who provide user-based peer support and 
education formed - is hosting Drugs, Families and Society with an 
"unusually honest" approach to addictions.

SANSU asked Mark Haden, University of B.C. School of Population and 
Public Health adjunct professor, to develop and deliver the 
seven-part series, targeted to start this March.

To be honest ... any community has drug problems," he said. "Surrey 
has some significant drug problems.

"(It) has huge community problems with drugs if you talk to people 
about their levels of fear that they have around drug violence."

Haden worked in the addictions field for 28 years with Vancouver 
Coastal Health and was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for 
drug policy reform work in 2013.

He says he'll speak factually about the lies of past drug educators - 
including himself.

"I would say that drug education often had three lies," he said. "We 
have exaggerated the harms of drugs, we never acknowledged the 
benefits of drugs, and we've never talked about the dominant model of 
drugs in our society, which is prohibition, which has failed as a 
social policy.

"We need to do it differently."

The public series is available for anyone who is interested in drugs 
- - be it drug abusers, people with addictions, a parent, or 
health-care professionals.

"Historically, drug education is based on fear-based sound bites," he 
said. "The intention is to make people afraid. That's actually a problem.

"It's a problem because it isn't just be afraid of drugs, it's be 
afraid of drug users. It's horrible what happens because it starts a 
process of targeting and marginalizing people - it's really 
destructive for the integration of our society."

The series is in line to receive a $2,400 one-time grant from Surrey 
council for its $7,100 project. The other funding has come from the 
Fraser Health Authority ($2,000), LookOut Society ($600), and Simon 
Fraser University Surrey campus ($2,100 in-kind).
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom