This podcast features a discussion about the push to provide more effective harm reduction services, education, outreach and advocacy to enhance and save the lives of people most at risk from the toxic drug crisis in the Atlantic provinces of Canada.

Katie Upham is the Harm Reduction Educator of the Substance User Network of the Atlantic Region (SUNAR) and a member of many other advocacy and drug user groups such as The Canadian Association of People Who Use Drugs and Moms Stop the Harm. She uses her experience with substance use to advocate for change in health care settings, and drug policies, and to support the rights of those with experience of substance use. She believes that people who use or have used substances must be justly included in all practices, programming and guidelines that concern them to reduce stigma and save lives.

Emily Wadden also relies on knowledge acquired from her experience with substance use in her role as Program Manager, of the Safe Works Access Program (SWAP), part of the AIDS Committee of Newfoundland and Labrador. She is also a member of SUNAR, which has had a positive effect on her outlook, in a society that disparages adult drug users.

When it comes to making policies regarding substance use in Canada, the people who have experience using drugs, have knowledge that needs to be heard. As drug user unions from coast to coast say in the slogan, “Nothing about us without us,” they need a seat at the table, and they need to be heard when they speak.

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This podcast ends on a somber not with an acapella cover of the Tragically Hip’s “Ahead by a Century” in memory of Cy Stricker.

Click Aerhyn Lau to find the song.

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