Interview with TotalHype

IInterview with Zoe from TDUU

conducted by Donna Feb.23, 2011

What is T.D.U.U?

TDUU is the Toronto Drug Users Union. We formed 2 years ago to advocate for our own rights. Drug users have been organizing themselves since the 60’s. It’s important for drug users to organize. Decisions, policies, laws are created every day that impact our daily lives, these decisions are more than often made without us.

Why does it exist?

Drug users are some of the most vilified, scapegoated, over incarcerated, targeted, marginalized people in our society. The war on drugs is actually a war on us. It is a failed war and one that needs to end. Billions of dollars are spent every day keeping the War alive. Instead of investing in this war, we should be using this money to invest in communities. We as drug users need to be organizing ourselves for our own self representation and self empowerment. Liberation never came to those from the oppressed groups who didn’t fight for it. We need to be fighting for our human rights! We have been hard hit by the epidemics of HIV and Hepatitis C, we have lost our family members and friends to violence, overdose and death. We are subjected to archaic drug laws all because we ingest a substance. The illegal nature of what we do puts us at risk for many things. We have a voice! There are drug users sitting on committees, involved in the creation of policies that will affect our daily lives, who are they accountable to? and who do they represent? Being part of a union means you are accountable to us and that’s how it should be.

Who is on it?

We have over 90 registered members. We come from all different backgrounds. Some of us are current users, some of us are former users, we are different ages, genders, ethnicities, some of us smoke crack, some of us inject, etc etc. We are all different but we all have one common thread… we are current and former drug users who want to be treated with dignity, with humanity and we want the war on people who use drugs to end.

Why are you involved?

I started using drugs really early on in my life. I experimented a lot as a teenager but when I was 15 I had a lot of really intense things happen to me. They were really hard to cope with and I used drugs more heavily to help me through those years. I always enjoyed doing drugs, the experience, the pleasure and they worked as an amazing escape. In my early twenties I decided I couldn’t handle my life as it was any more and I wanted to do something different. I came to Toronto with a few months of sobriety under my belt. I felt extremely guilty, self loathing, isolated, depressed. I knew I was young and I knew I didn’t want to stay “sober” for ever. I felt ashamed of shit that I had done and shit that had happened to me. I was living a big secret when I came here, no one knew the secrets I was keeping. In 2004, I decided to go to college. I never thought for a moment that I would ever go to college. I was really poor, had little direction and felt pretty lost. Going back to school changed my life. It was while I was in school challenging someone about drug use that I first admitted publically about being a drug user and I blurted out in class “drugs saved my fucking life!”. I believe that. I know that using drugs through some pretty traumatic stuff helped keep me alive. In 2005 I started publically talking about my own personal drug use. I started talking to Raffi about drug user activism and he encouraged me to get involved. I was doing lots of coalition work and activism in the community, needle exchange, the safer crack use coalition, hepatitis C advocacy and education, the crack users project.  I joined the International Network of People Who Use Drugs and felt super empowered. It’s empowering being around like minded people who are fighting for their own liberation from this war.

The illegal nature of drugs has also taken many of my friends away. The first overdose I witnessed was when I was 13. I lost my first love to an overdose when I first moved here, his name was Darryl. I have lost so many important people in my life from overdose, violence and incarceration. It fuels me to want to fight this war on us and end it. I want to see a day where we aren’t casualties in this war but where we are all thriving, not just surviving. This is why I am involved with the Drug Users Union. To fight for OUR human rights! For all people who use drugs.

What are the main things that T.D.U.U are working on?

We are on the city of Toronto’s drug strategy implementation panel. We are involved in an anti-stigma campaign. We have been asked to speak at conferences, consult on projects. We are involved with AIDS ACTION NOW!, opposing prison expansion, involved in the methadone project being carried out with CounterFIT, our members are  harm reduction workers, our members are working on other projects with awesome organizations like the Toronto Harm Reduction Task Force, Queen West Community Health Centre, TRIP to name a few. We are involved with organizing a demo being held March 10 at Old City Hall courts at noon to oppose the prison expansion, we are also involved with organizing a demo for March 15, International Anti- Police Brutality Day. We are building a movement!

What is a typical meeting like?

 A typical meeting involves about 30 people, we have food and shoot the shit for a few minutes and then we get to business. We discuss issues in the community and then move on to our agenda. We sometimes have guest speakers, to educate us on certain topics. We discuss our priorities, and give report backs on the work we are involved in. They are pretty lively discussions. We try and share roles, taking turns chairing, taking minutes etc. We offer TTC for those who need it. We also attend other meetings, demos and events on a regular basis as union representatives.  

When is it and where (time of meeting and location)?

We meet the second Thursday of the month from 2-4pm at South Riverdale Community Health centre in the A/B room. If you are a current or former drug user, are committed to the principles of harm reduction and want to fight for the health and human rights for people who use drugs, please join us!!!

Last thoughts?

 Thanks for the interview Donna!! We want to build our union stronger and bigger. We have just applied for some more money which will help us in our organizing efforts. One day we’d love to be able to hire a community organizer to assist with all the amazing work we are involved in. Nothing about us with out us!!!!