Pivot's mandate is to use the law to address the root causes of poverty and social exclusion. We engage in strategic litigation and other law reform techniques to bring about social change. We take a bottom up approach to our work, working collaboratively with people impacted by poverty and marginalization to develop a vision for change that will make a meaningful difference in their lives. We are committed to providing people living in poverty with opportunities to develop new skills and to speak for themselves about their needs and issues that affect them. Our four campaign areas are: Homes for All, Sex Workers’ Rights, Accountable Policing, and Health and Drug Policy. Pivot’s Health and Drug Policy campaign focuses on protecting and enhancing the human rights of people who use drugs. Currently, we are involved in legal advocacy around supervised consumption in Canada, heroin-assisted treatment, needle distribution services in prison, combatting mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences, and challenging discriminatory bylaws that prevent access to harm-reduction services.

El mandato de Pivot consiste en utilizar la ley para abordar las causas sociales de la pobreza y la exclusión social.

Le mandat de Pivot consiste à utiliser la loi pour résoudre les causes profondes de la pauvreté et de l'inclusion sociale.

Pivot 

Pivot Legal Society y VANDU brindan asesoría sobre organización para que los gobiernos locales eliminen las prácticas que ponen en peligro la vida de las personas que consumen drogas.

Talking Back to the City: A manual for winning – and resisting – local drug policy

 is a drug policy report authored by Pivot Legal Society and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU). It calls on local governments to cease practices that jeopardize drug users’ lives.

The 60-page report combines legal information with a framework for grassroots organizing against the drug war. Drawing on decades of Pivot and VANDU’s collective experience, the report aims to “educate local governments about the tools they have (or don’t have) [and] build strength and solidarity with our allies around Turtle Island.”

Though all levels of government have a responsibility to address the drug toxicity crisis, 

 takes aim at the deadly actions and inactions of local governments, recognizing that “it is here on the streets where drug users die from policy at the hands of police, bylaw enforcement officers, city councils, and the public.”

The routine hostility of local governments toward overdose prevention services is a prime example of anti-drug user policy.

“In addition to undercutting BC’s decriminalization policy, cities are routinely responsible for impediments to and closure of overdose prevention services (OPS) across the Province, despite there being a standing 

 requiring OPS “wherever there is need.” Drug user groups (which provide cutting edge harm reduction services and drug policy advocacy) are constantly under threat too, with many having to close their doors due to local governments’ use of zoning restrictions, business licence denials, and nuisance property designations. Talking Back calls for an end to these practices from the ground up.”

Drug user groups... are constantly under threat too, with many having to close their doors due to local governments’ use of zoning restrictions, business licence denials, and nuisance property designations. ~

Caitlin Shane, Staff Lawyer – Pivot Legal Society

In the face of government action and inaction, VANDU has fought against deadly drug policies for more than two decades. The Report highlights lessons learned and best practices VANDU has developed over the decades.

“We want to show other [drug user] groups how to get started. If VANDU had been around more than 25 years ago, maybe my daughter would have been around today, because she would have had clean needles. I’d like to let the world know that just because we’re drug users we’re not failures, we can do whatever we say we’re going to do, we can teach people and the young generation how to do it right and not kill themselves. To be able to teach the new generation the right ways without lying to them and the public, that’s the main thing. Tell the truth.”

To be able to teach the new generation the right ways without lying to them and the public, that’s the main thing. Tell the truth. ~

“We want this report to act as a manual. There’s so many things that are so troublesome to us, it could be hundreds of pages long; it could be a volume. We want to save communities the trouble of going through the brutality that VANDU and other groups have had to go through. We need to share our knowledge and not be greedy. We want to elevate people. Give them some encouragement.”

We need to share our knowledge and not be greedy. We want to elevate people. Give them some encouragement. ~

The Report reflects the philosophy of ‘nothing about us, without us’.

Ultimately, the most profound need to establish such a network [of people who use drugs] arises from the fact that no group of oppressed people ever attained liberation without the involvement of those directly affected by this oppression. ~

The Report also contains a poster insert, “VANDU’s Golden Rules,” which shares top tips and tricks for: direct action and grassroots organizing; working with government; and working with researchers.

Responder a la ciudad: Un manual para prevalecer y resistir ante las políticas locales referidas a drogas

La sociedad civil y red comunitaria canadienses expresan inquietudes clave sobre el enfoque de la Ciudad de Vancouver respecto a descriminalizar la posesión simple de drogas. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

As organizations and individuals committed to the liberation of people who use drugs, and progressive, rights-based drug policy reforms including decriminalization, we, the undersigned, call on the City of Vancouver to address three major concerns regarding its current application to the federal Health Minister to decriminalize simple drug possession locally. We also call on Health Canada and the federal Health Minister, Patty Hajdu, to refrain from imposing unnecessary and unjustified restrictions on any exemption issued to enable decriminalization in Vancouver or other municipalities or provinces that may follow suit, and we call on the Vancouver Police Department to stand down, vacate the process of decriminalization, and sign off on community-established thresholds.

We support the City of Vancouver’s initiative as the first jurisdiction in Canada to formally pursue decriminalization of simple drug possession. We are also keenly aware that the process leading to, and the substantive outcome of, this policy change are likely to become a precedent for jurisdictions considering similar initiatives, such as British Columbia. It is essential, therefore, that the “Vancouver Model” of decriminalization proceeds correctly. This means taking the utmost care to consider the lived and living realities of people who use drugs and ensuring the approach adopted does not lead to more harm than good.

Descriminalización, bien hecha: Una visión de derechos humanos y de salud pública para la reforma de la salud pública

Muchos países de todo el mundo están utilizando la posición de la ONU para justificar la criminalización excesiva de los usuarios de drogas, y Canadá no es ninguna excepción. Es hora de que el país revise su política en materia de estupefacientes. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.

Suscríbase a las Alertas mensuales del IDPC para recibir información sobre cuestiones relacionadas con políticas sobre drogas.

June 26 is the United Nations’ International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. Around the world, many countries are using the UN's position to justify the excessive criminalization of drug users. In Canada, it's led to Bill C-10, the Conservatives Government’s 

The bill institutes mandatory minimum sentencing for various drug possession charges. Under the 

, possession for the purpose of trafficking now carries a one-year minimum sentence in certain circumstances.

Mandatory minimum sentences are bad public policy for everyone. They are expensive and they don't work. For drug charges, mandatory jail time cost taxpayers a fortune in policing, court and jail costs. The 

 is a policy that does little to stem the sale and consumption of illicit drugs. It also places our most marginalized citizens at great risk.

Pivot outlined the social costs of mandatory minimums in a report last year called 

Throwing Away the Keys: The human and social cost of mandatory minimum sentences

. In short, mandatory minimum sentences in Canada have a disproportionate effect on women, on aboriginal people, and on people who are involved in the drug trade because of their addiction. Pivot says this disproportionate effect goes so far that it is unconstitutional.

Keep up-to-date with drug policy developments by subscribing to the IDPC Monthly Alert.

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Responder a la ciudad: Un manual para prevalecer y resistir ante las políticas locales referidas a drogas

Descriminalización, bien hecha: Una visión de derechos humanos y de salud pública para la reforma de la salud pública

Canadá perderá la guerra contra las drogas con las penas mínimas obligatorias