Who is behind the Drug resource and education project?
Chlöe Sage (she/her)
On my first day of sociology 101 the professor asked the class when their first moment of critical thinking was that moved them to action. I immediately shot my hand up. It was grade three. The BC government was starting an aerial wolf kill program, and I knew it was wrong. I created a petition and took it around my entire elementary school, gaining signatures from every kid in the school. It was that passion for justice that has fueled my life, activism and work. I am a Jewish Immigrant/settler cis gendered woman who is white and middle class. I also use drugs. I am aware that I hold privilege in my position and location and strive in my work to create safe and inclusive environments for all.
For me harm reduction is not just a philosophy but a way of life. I entered into harm reduction 17 years ago as a harm reduction educator at ANKORS, a rural, British Columbia, harm reduction organization. My position included creating and delivering harm reduction party safe education in the schools. In response to the abstinence based DARE program, we gave youth factual information about drugs and their effects and safer use information. Throughout my time at ANKORS I filled several direct service roles. Educator, harm reduction services, Hepatitis C support and Festival harm reduction and drug checking program coordinator. I also privately create and facilitate an online drug and overdose awareness course for industry employee training.
The increase in New Psychoactive Substances on the illicit drug market and increased morbidity due to a toxic drug supply led ANKORS to create a festival harm reduction drug checking service at music festivals in 2004. I have been the coordinator of the festival drug checking project since 2009; managing recruiting, training, coordinating research and logistics of the project. What began as a two person team in a small tent hidden in the vendor’s area of Shambhala Music Festival has become a 70 person team in a massive shelter displayed in a prominent location. Guests of this 18,000 person festival line up for two hours to get their drugs checked. Completing over 35,000 drug checks between 2004-2019 This project has become a center for research and training on drugs and drug checking that has reached international attention. Drug Checking at Music Festivals: A how to guide: (Sage & Michelow, 2016) has been used around the world by groups and individuals interested in starting drug checking projects. As a consultant, I have supported many groups nationally and internationally with planning and implementation of drug checking and festival harm reduction programs. With the onset of the Overdose crisis, I began offering drug checking as a pilot at ANKORS fixed site location as the first walk in drug checking service in Canada. In the time I coordinated the drug checking project at ANKORS I researched appropriate technologies and became a technician on the Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer. I also train in collaboration with BCCSU, drug checking technicians on the FTIR. I now work as a regional harm reduction coordinator with Interior Health of British Columbia and as a harm reduction and drug checking consultant. The manual project is a collaborative passion project we want to share with you.
Julie-Soleil Meeson (she/her)
My first exposure to illicit substances was in the 90s. I am from the early days of electronic music in Montreal. Like many youth of my generation, I went out to parties with my friends, I danced and I used substances on occasion. Being in these settings, I lived through some difficult moments, some abuse, a non-fatal overdose of a very close friend and the fatal overdose of an ex-boyfriend, but I also lived through many moments of tenderness, reciprocity, happiness and joy. We all use substances for different reasons : for medical or therapeutic use, for pleasure, to be more social, because we had a hard day at work. I know that I am privileged because I have never been arrested, looked at in the wrong way or felt ostracized because of the substances that I used.
My main reason I got involved in drug education, prevention and harm reduction is because of the lack of information that was there for us. Nobody really knew or even wanted to give us non-judgmental and evidence-based information about drugs. I'm from the Just Say No generation. So this policy was putting everybody I loved in danger and I wanted to do something about it.
So, I’ve been involved for the past 20 years in harm reduction, drug policy changes and social justice. One of my main passions is drug checking (DC) because it’s an amazing way to connect with people and to have conversations about drugs. For the past decade, I’ve been a dedicated advocate for inclusion of DC in harm reduction services in Canada. I have had the privilege of being part of the ANKORS DC Crew at Shambhala Festival for the past six years. As a person who has done her masters in criminology and being a harm reductionist in DC settings, I got to meet people that came from many different academic backgrounds like pharmacy, sociology, nursing, medicine, social work, chemistry and people with a lot of different experiential knowledge. These DC settings gave us the opportunity to cross-pollinate and learn from each other.
I have the privilege to teach many people about substances, harm reduction and drug policy. For example, I teach a course on drugs and crime at the Faculté de l’éducation permanente at the University of Montréal in the department of criminology. I also work for the Association des intervenants en dépendance du Québec where I am the manager of knowledge translation.
Hopefully, what we have put together for you will help push knowledge further and get rid of these really dreadful drug policies that are killing our friends and family.
So I am a sister, a mother, a friend, an educator and I am a person who loves people who use substances.
Jarred Aasen (he/him)
@JarredAasen
Caring for others, self development and building strong communities is something that I have always been passionate about. It is what led me down the path of getting involved in this area. I was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where I grew up and attended the University of Saskatchewan. I graduated from the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition in the class of 2015. Shortly after graduating I moved to Victoria, BC. I was interested in experiencing a new part of Canada, as well as working in an area with historically more progressive drug policies. My contributions to this manual is the culmination of my experience working in the area of pharmacy, harm reduction, drug policy and community organizations in a variety of settings.
Through my years working in a community minded opioid agonist therapy (OAT) focused pharmacy, I gained insights into the multifaceted causes of problematic substance use and dispelled much of my own stigma and misinformation I personally held. My work in pharmacy has been acknowledged through the British Columbia Pharmacy Association's Excellence in Patient Care Award 2021. As a pharmacist who dispenses regulated, quality controlled substances, it struck me as logical to provide external quality control to the unregulated market.
My experience in drug checking also comes from establishing Lantern Services - Canada’s first federally exempted drug checking site. This site has been working closely with the University of Victoria, and has enabled the publication of a variety of academic papers. I have shared my experience and knowledge in this realm at multiple conferences, as well as through consulting with various drug checking organizations. Here is an article that I had written about my previous works and my involvement in drug checking. In addition to community settings, I have volunteered as a drug checking technician at various music festivals for many years including Shambhala, Bass Coast and Otherworld.
I also have the privilege of working with the wonderful team at the Vancouver Island Drug Checking Project - a unique federally funded university research project focused on establishing a community based drug checking service that links research and public service. Through my work with this project, I have experience with a variety of instruments for drug checking purposes including immunoassay strips, Raman spectrometry, Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry, gas chromatography mass spectrometry and paper spray mass spectrometry.
There is no one size fits all approach to substances. Completely forbidding them creates unsafe environments for those who inevitably seek them out and the dangers surrounding them can be mitigated through education and support. Using substances as a scapegoat for the poor and disenfranchised is not an equitable solution to the growing overdose mortality rates. It is clear that society is ready for a more advanced discussion. My life is intrinsically tied with my work, and my goal is to facilitate dialogue and discussion so that we can move towards more holistic approaches to health.
What I want is for all people to be given a chance to be their best version of themselves.