Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users

{{Infobox organization

| name = Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU)

| logo = File:Vandulogo.jpg

| founded_date = 1997

| dissolved =

| status = Non-profit organization

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| leader_title = Executive Director

| leader_name = Ronnie Grigg

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| origins =

| area_served = Downtown Eastside, Vancouver, Canada

| focus = Drug users rights, Drug policy reform, Drug policy, Human rights, Harm reduction.

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| homepage = [http://www.vandu.org/ www.vandu.org]

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}}

The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users or VANDU is a not-for-profit organization{{cite magazine |date=16 July 2017 |title=Vancouver drug users' group VANDU has led prevention policy |url=https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/vancouver-drug-users-group-vandu-has-led-prevention-policy/ |magazine=Maclean's |publisher=The Canadian Press |accessdate=12 February 2021}} and advocacy group based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The group believes that all drug users should have their own rights and freedoms. The group's members have been actively involved in lobbying for support of Insite, North America's first safe injection site, located in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.{{cite web| author=Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users| title=VANDU| url=http://www.vandu.org/about.html| year=2009| accessdate=2009-04-02| archive-date=2008-11-20| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120114313/http://www.vandu.org/about.html| url-status=dead}}

Its board of directors consists entirely of current and former drug addicts.{{Cite news |last=Bishop |first=Greg |date=2010-02-05 |title=In the Shadow of the Olympics (Published 2010) |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/sports/olympics/05eastside.html |access-date=2021-02-12 |issn=0362-4331 |quote=Another group is Vandu, or the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, which fills its board exclusively with addicts past and present.}} It was co-founded by Ann Livingston and Bud Osborn. Livingston had previously established a short-lived injection site called "Back Alley" on Powell Street in 1995.{{cite news|url=https://www.straight.com/news/959286/vancouver-area-network-drug-users-looks-back-20-years-fighting-human-rights|title=The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users looks back on 20 years fighting for human rights|last=Lupick|first=Travis|newspaper=The Georgia Straight|date=4 September 2017|accessdate=12 February 2021}}

The group received a grant in 2022 from the city to perform street cleaning, but the contract was rescinded for not performing the work and instead, using the grant funds for other purposes.

Background

VANDU was created in September 1997, to advocate for the delivery of health care services to drug users living in Vancouver who had been exposed to increasing rates of hepatitis C and HIV as a result of sharing needles, and to address risks to their health, such as drug overdose. It has operated an unauthorized drug consumption site and provided assisted illegal drug use for about four years until it was shut down in 2014.{{Cite journal|last1=Kerr|first1=Thomas|last2=Mitra|first2=Sanjana|last3=Kennedy|first3=Mary Clare|last4=McNeil|first4=Ryan|date=2017-05-18|title=Supervised injection facilities in Canada: past, present, and future|url= |journal=Harm Reduction Journal|volume=14|issue=1|pages=28|doi=10.1186/s12954-017-0154-1|issn=1477-7517|pmc=5437687|pmid=28521829 |doi-access=free }}

A few dozen people first met in Oppenheimer Park on 9 September 1997 in response to messages posted by Livingston on utility poles throughout the Downtown Eastside. The assembled group of people decided to form an organization, and adopted the name Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users a year later. One of the attendees was Donald MacPherson, who later became drug-policy coordinator for Vancouver municipal government, and who also established the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition.

Membership grew to about 100 individuals in a few months, and eventually to over 2,000.{{cite web|url=https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/16386592|title=Inside Insite: How a Localized Social Movement Led the Way for North America's First Legal Supervised Injection Site|last=Harati|first=Donna|publisher=Harvard Law School|date=2015|accessdate=12 February 2021}}{{rp|10}} The organization's membership is open to all individuals, but those elected to the board of directors must be current or former addicts, and votes at the organization's meetings may only be cast by current or former addicts.

City of Vancouver grant misdirection

VANDU was given a $320,000 grant from the City of Vancouver in 2022 to provide street cleaning services in the Hastings Street encampment. Questions were raised when VANDU couldn't be seen working and street cleanliness continued to deteriorate. The organization eventually admitted to diverting grant intended for street cleaning into its general funds.{{Cite web |last=Chan |first=Kenneth |date=Jan 17, 2023 |title=VANDU blocked by Vancouver City Council from receiving new public funds {{!}} News |url=https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vandu-vancouver-city-council-public-funding-blocked |access-date=2023-08-24 |website=Daily Hive |language=en}} $160,000 of the grant was paid out, however the City of Vancouver terminated the contract when services were not delivered as expected.{{Cite web |last1=Ayers |first1=Shawn |last2=Nassar |first2=Hana Mae |date=January 18, 2023 |title=VANDU arts, culture grant pulled due to 'misuse' of prior funds: City of Vancouver |url=https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/01/18/vandu-arts-culture-grant-vancouver/ |access-date=2023-08-24 |website=vancouver.citynews.ca}}{{Cite web |title=City of Vancouver ends $320,000 Block Stewardship contract awarded to VANDU - BC {{!}} Globalnews.ca |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/9305761/vandu-hastings-street-cleaning-contract/ |access-date=2023-08-24 |website=Global News |language=en-US}} The city council voted to deny VANDU a $7,500 grant for arts program in 2023 for the gross misuse of public funds in 2022 making it the only grant out of 84 grants recommended by city staff to be denied by city council.{{Cite news |last=Kulkarni |first=Akshay |date=January 18, 2023 |title=Vancouver drug user group denied city funding for art program |work=CBC |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vandu-art-table-funding-denied-1.6718667 |access-date=August 24, 2023}}

Actions and services

The organization also engages in local issues pertaining to Downtown Eastside area residents.{{Cite journal |last=Himmelright |first=Breanna |date=2022-08-25 |title=Series of Downtown Eastside building fires alarm residents, advocates |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/downtown-eastside-fire-bylaw-violations-1.6555498 |journal= |via=CBC}}

VANDU defends harm reduction services and supervised injection facilities.{{Cite web |last=Reynolds |first=Christopher |date=2021-08-22 |title=O'Toole would allow safe injection sites, but stops short of decriminalization |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/federal-election-2021/o-toole-would-allow-safe-injection-sites-but-stops-short-of-decriminalization-1.5556883?cache=wcoseppn%3FclipId%3D89680%3Fot%3DAjaxLayout |access-date=2022-09-01 |website=CTVNews |language=en |quote=Garth Mullins, a representative of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), said the Tory approach marks an improvement from Harper's tough-on-crime stance, but he believes a focus on recovery and abstinence is "misplaced" as it misidentifies the crux of the crisis.}} In recent years, VANDU has been engaging with the Drug Users Liberation Front (DULF){{Cite web |title=Drug user compassion groups in B.C. see success in safe supply distribution |url=https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/highlights/drug-user-compassion-groups-see-success-in-safe-supply-distribution-5763733 |access-date=2022-09-01 |website=Pique Newsmagazine |date=31 August 2022 |language=en}} to provide "safe supply" services.{{Cite web |last=McDonough |first=David |date=2022-06-22 |title=Rethinking Canada's misguided ideological approach to the opioid epidemic: Jeremy Eckert Devine for Inside Policy |url=https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/rethinking-canadas-misguided-ideological-approach-to-the-opioid-epidemic-jeremy-eckert-devine-for-inside-policy/ |access-date=2022-09-01 |website=Macdonald-Laurier Institute |language=en-US |quote=The Canadian Association of People who use Drugs (CAPUD) and the Vancouver Association Network of Drug Users (VANDU) both appear to deny that drug use is intrinsically harmful. Rather, they imply it is the barriers created by prohibition that makes drug use dangerous.}} The group handed out cocaine, meth and heroin to users in July 2021 in which city councilor Jean Swanson participated in the distribution. Washington Examiner said it's uncertain if substances distributed by VANDU was obtained lawfully.{{Cite web |last=Dima |first=Jake |date=2021-07-16 |title=Free meth, heroin, and cocaine given to users outside Canadian police precinct |url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/meth-heroin-cocaine-drugs-free-vancouver-canada-police-precinct |access-date=2023-09-24 |website=Washington Examiner |language=en}} The DULF founders Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx have been charged with possession with intent to distribute in May 2024.{{Cite news |last=Joannou |first=Ashley |date=Jul 22, 2024 |title=Years after Insite ruling, B.C. drug policy landscape still in flux |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-drug-policy-landscape-1.7268697 |access-date=July 30, 2024 |work=CBC}}{{Cite news |last=Cecco |first=Leyland |date=2024-06-10 |title=Canadian drug advocacy group founders charged with trafficking |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/10/drug-user-liberation-front-charged-trafficking-canada |access-date=2024-08-02 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} The pair had sourced the illicit drugs that was distributed by DULF and VANDU together through the dark web.{{Cite web |date=2024-10-15 |title=Canadians who sold purer drugs in bid to stop overdoses challenge charges |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3wp03d97jvo |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |date=2024-06-25 |title=Drug Users Liberation Front fiasco raises questions about government complicity in illegal activity |url=https://www.theorca.ca/provincial-politics/drug-users-liberation-front-fiasco-raises-questions-about-government-complicity-in-illegal-activity-9134302 |access-date=2025-04-13 |website=The Orca |language=en}}