Megaphone Magazine - Vancouver's Street Paper • harmreduction: Harm Reduction…What’s Human...

harmreduction:

Harm Reduction…What’s Human Rights Got to Do with It?
I am a product of the housing projects of the Lower East Side. I was a street level drug addict, in the mix every day. Shooting up on sidewalks, rooftops, hallways, and abandoned buildings. I was a New York City junkie to the core….
Looking back at this time, I have to question why – knowing as much as we did at the time regarding the potential transmission routes of AIDS – why wasn’t more done? Why were my friends and family denied basic human rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights…How come it didn’t apply to my family and friends? Why was government on the City, State and Federal levels allowed to impose sentence on my friends and family solely based on the perceived morality of the way they lived their lives?
Read more.

Harm Reduction…What’s Human Rights Got to Do with It?

I am a product of the housing projects of the Lower East Side. I was a street level drug addict, in the mix every day. Shooting up on sidewalks, rooftops, hallways, and abandoned buildings. I was a New York City junkie to the core….

Looking back at this time, I have to question why – knowing as much as we did at the time regarding the potential transmission routes of AIDS – why wasn’t more done? Why were my friends and family denied basic human rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights…How come it didn’t apply to my family and friends? Why was government on the City, State and Federal levels allowed to impose sentence on my friends and family solely based on the perceived morality of the way they lived their lives?

Read more.