INSITE INTO A BIGGER PROBLEM

'We're All Drug Users,' Says Safe Injection Site Adddvocate

Safe drug use advocate Gillian Maxwell says substance use shouldn't be
so taboo, since we all do it.

"We're all drug users," Maxwell said in an interview after her
lecture. "Why do we draw lines between people who drink alcohol or
people that [use other] mind-altering substances?"

Maxwell, the first speaker in the Concordia University Community
HIV/AIDS Lecture series, is an advocate for Insite, North America's
only authorized safe injection site. Maxwell also mediates Keeping the
Door Open, a coalition that works towards creating dialogues on drug
use.

Her lecture last Thursday focused primarily on her involvement with
Insite and the research that supports the centre.

Maxwell feels that the reasons behind holding prejudice against drug
users has very little to do with substance use but rather about
socio-economic ideals.

"It's all about poverty," she said. "It's all about criminalizing poor
people and having a target group you can blame things on." Maxwell
cited drug users and sex workers as those who are targeted.

In its five years of existence, Insite has struggled with the federal
government to keep its doors open.

"If you truly want to help people, you'll do everything you can to
keep them alive and healthy," she said. "People mostly have excessive
amounts of dependency because they do have big problems and they don't
know how to deal with them."

Maxwell said that while she doesn't have her own clinical definition
for addiction, she doesn't like to view it as a disease and says it
can often be attributed to other factors.

"It's a condition that arises, comes up and goes down, for different
people, at different times," she said. "Forget the conversation about
the substances and start finding out why people have troubles in life,
and what you can do to help them."

Hear the full lecture online at http://thelinknewspaper.ca.