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How is it to be a drug-user in New York City?
Like, what are the major difficulties you face in your everyday life?
If you don't mind getting searched anywhere, anytime ...
You know, patted-down searched ...
And if you don't mind the pressure of knowing that
When you are going to get the drugs,
That you may get arrested at any time ...
You start getting real sharp and knowing what cars the detectives drive in,
the undercover cars,
If you don't mind that, then you'll have a good day.
But it's almost ... it becomes a part of life
You know, to get what I want, what I believe I need,
I have to live that lifestyle. So it's very hard, it's difficult.
But it becomes a part of your lifestyle.
We are seeing User Unions and people step-up and say
"You know, I am a person who uses drugs,"
"And I have a right to health, I have a right to liberty,"
"And, you know, I have a right to organize."
What's the role of user-organizing in developing harm reduction programs?
There have always been users in the harm reduction movement.
When I started doing needle exchange, I was a *** user.
But we weren't organized as such, we just blended in.
And now it's more possible to organize as drug users
and have an independent voice.
You know, once you start setting up an organization
You worry about funding, you worry about your relationship with
the health authorities, with the government,
And users have an independent voice
that can say, "Now wait a minute, this is what we need,"
"This is how harm reduction is supposed to work."
One huge barrier that we have here
is that when you out yourself in America as a drug user,
You are actually putting yourself at great risk for loss-of-freedom,
Loss of, if you have children ...
Your children have the likelihood to be taken away from you.
There is a political pushback,
That people think that drug-users can't organize,
That they're too chaotic, but here we are in this country
that the ban is finally lifted, and that was driven by
Drug-users finally organizing themselves.
We do community organizing
To help drug-users and people with ***
who previously had no voice in government,
to open a forum for them to speak and explain their issues.
One of our main goals is to
To fight the stereotype that drug-users are passive,
or incapacitated,
or unable to make opinions or see policy.
Stigma is a big issue.
People stigmatize us based on who we are.
Stigma can be challenged, you know.
With challenging the stigma, something can change.
We say in the harm reduction movement, "Any positive change."
Drug-users were denied access to Hepatitis-C treatment.
Unless you can document that you had 3 to 6 months clean,
You coulnd't get treatment for hepatitus-C.
If you were a prisoner, forget about it!
But, we organized ourselves, right?
So that we would be vocal.
We would say that we were drug users ... and had a right!
To treatment, you know, had a right for respect and dignity,
And had a right to participate in the decisions that affect our lives.
As drug users.
One of the bills that we were working on is the syringe access bill.
The health code in New York stated that it was ok to have clean syringes distributed.
And the penal code insisted that it was not legal to do that,
So what we did was, we sort of changed the language
of the bill itself,
To reflect that a reconciliation was needed
between those two agencies, so that
people would not be afraid to exchange needles
without fear of police harassment ...
And we've done that.
That is one of the things that we try and stay conscious of ...
The user organizing, is being accountable for the community
and holding each other accountable for the community,
To kind of set a different precedent, a different understanding,
of what it means to be a user.
That you're not running around ripping people off,
or stealing ladies' purses,
or going to your grandma's purse,
or boosting, or whatever the attitudes are ...
it's not necessarily true
and it's probably the exception to the rule.
People who are involved in our group, they feel bad about themselves.
We are giving people a positive connection to their identity as drug users,
that they're helping themselves and others.
If we don't organize and stand up for better laws
and to tear down the stigmatizations
Then there's no organization that would do it for us.
Who better can do it than the users themselves?
We are the community.
We are the brothers and sisters in your community, we are the mothers and fathers in your community.
You know, we are the sons and daughters in your community.
We are not aliens, we are right next to you.
Right in front of you, we are everywhere ... we are the silent majority.
But we need to break the silence to challenge the stigma.
To organize is to live, for me.
And I think that it's needed in all parts of the world.
To be able to be heard, to be able to have quality laws.
Laws that mean to have a richer quality of life, because it's legal.
You have a right, you have a bonafied right, because you were born.
Not because you're a user or not
and you live here or there, and you have or have-not.
Just because you were born, you certainly have priviledges.
Transcribed and Subtitled by Hunter Holliman