Pubdate: Tue, 21 Nov 2017
Source: Metro (Vancouver, CN BC)
Copyright: 2017 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3775
Author: Jen St. Denis
Page: 3

HOUSING KEY TO TREATING ADDICTION

Drug reliance stems from lack of social bonds, trauma: Expert

To Janice Abbott, the link between housing and addiction is a direct
line.

"One of the things that happens when women don't have housing is that
women use (drugs) to stay safe," the CEO of Atira Women's Resource
Society told attendees at the Housing Central Conference in Richmond
on Monday.

"Young women on the streets use speed, any upper, to be able to stay
awake so they can keep themselves safe from all the predation that's
on the streets."

Homelessness among women is often "invisible," she added, meaning that
women are often enduring domestic or sexual abuse to keep a roof over
their heads - and using drugs to cope with the trauma. She added that
many of the women who use drugs at Atira's women-only overdose
prevention site in the early morning are sex workers who are getting
high before they go to work.

"When you don't have to worry about staying safe, when you don't have
to worry about trading sex, when you don't have to worry about
violence you can start to think about your substance use," she said.

Abbott was speaking on a panel with several other housing providers and 
Johann Hari, the British author of the book Chasing the Scream: The 
First and Last Days of the War on Drugs.

Hari argues in his book - which includes a section devoted to
pioneering harmreduction work done in the Downtown Eastside - that
drugs don't cause addiction, but rather addiction stems from people's
attempt to deal with trauma and a lack of social connection.

His message resonated with Abbott and the other panellists: Keir
Macdonald of the Lookout Society, which runs shelters and housing, and
Ross Laird, an addictions expert.

Abbott's organization also operates housing, half of which is low
barrier, meaning that residents don't have to be drug-free to live
there.

Speaking to Abbott's examples, Hari said that while he was researching
his book, he was struck by the decrease A Quebec judge in prostitution
in Switzerland after that country instituted a prescription heroin
program.

"They did not expect the prostitution market would change so
dramatically," Hari said. "I found that really haunting when I went
there - it was women's lives that were changed the most by that
program. Much of what we think of as chosen prostitution is coerced by
these horrible situations."

Macdonald expressed frustration that the federal government is against
talking about decriminalization, an approach that has had positive
social benefits in Portugal.

The B.C. government has shown more willingness to have that
discussion, Macdonald said.

Advocates for approaches like prescription heroin and
decriminalization argue that resources can be reallocated from
policing, to treatment and social policies that alleviate the root
causes of addiction, such as poverty and childhood abuse.

Decriminalization would also reduce the deep stigma that comes with
drug addiction and homelessness, Macdonald said.

While politicians often fear the public reaction to policies like
decriminalization, Hari said there are ways to get the public onside.

"People with addictions are people like you and me, they have as much
right to a good life as any of us. You would love them if you knew
them," Hari said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt