Cascadia Magazine original: saving lives with safe injection
Looking for something meaningful and incisive to read this weekend? At Cascadia Magazine, we’re addressing issues associated with the opioid overdose epidemic across Cascadia.
As fatality rates for drug overdoses surge in Washington and British Columbia , cities around the Pacific Northwest are grappling with how to stop so many people from dying. Cascadia Magazine looks at the crisis in three ways:
Seattle is considering creating one of the first safe consumption sites in the United States. It’s a controversial effort, and Kelsey Hamlin’s extensive feature details the issues involved: success rates for safe injection sites across the world, opposition from local communities, and the activists pushing hard for harm reduction.
Accompanying that story are Jackie Dives’ amazing, empathetic photos of the people behind the Overdose Prevention Society safe consumption site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighborhood. Staffed by people who are peers–that is, many are actively addicted–the site provides a safe space where overdose can be treated and people with substance abuse can find stability in their lives.
Click this link to read about the Seattle effort to create a safe injection site.
The third piece is an excerpt from Vancouver journalist Travis Lupick’s book Fighting for Space, a history of the effort to create North America’s first safe injection site back in 2003. It’s a story of activists secretly fighting to create a safe space for drug users–a battle that eventually led to nine different safe consumption sites around the city.
Click here to read Travis’s story.
Cascadia Magazine isn’t shy about covering controversial issues that are important to the Cascadia region. If you appreciate high-quality journalism and photography, please take a moment to visit our donate page. We’re a reader-supported publication and we depend on the support of readers like you to keep doing the work we do.
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Immigrant mothers separated from children at Sea-Tac prison
Nina Shapiro, reporting for the Seattle Times, has the horrific story of immigrant mothers separated from their children at a detention center in Sea-Tac, Washington. Other sites in Cascadia are part of the Trump administration’s cruel “no-tolerance” policy, including a federal prison in Sheridan, Oregon, where at least 10 Mexican nationals have had their children taken away.
OR group bridges divide between ranchers & environmentalists
High Country News reports on the High Desert Partnership, an Oregon nonprofit working to bring together cattle ranchers and environmentalists in the aftermath of the Bundy standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge–with mixed results.
Is Seattle replacing public housing with shacks?
At the Seattle Medium, Dawn Mason takes Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan to task for a proposal to create a village of tiny homes for the homeless on property that was once public housing. Meanwhile, Seattle Met details the long and sordid history of racist zoning in Seattle–and the legacy that survives in single-family zones across the city.
Did BC govt fudge facts in logging permits?
National Observer has an investigation into whether the BC government downplayed the environmental impact of clear-cut logging permits it issued on Vancouver Island ““It’s a disingenuous approach and it’s total spin. It’s so much spin that the marbled murrelet and the deer are dizzy.”
Seattle artist’s “Trash Mountain” makes art of GIFs
One doesn’t usually think of GIFs–those animated pics that litter social media–as art. But Seattle artist and illustrator Kenton Sears has created a dystopian world called “Trash Mountain” that employs soundless, wordless animations to capture the absurdity of contemporary life.
“Dear Current Occupant,” poetry by Chelene Knight
The BC-based literary mag Capilano Review has dedicated its Spring 2018 issue to issues of place and displacement. Online, you’ll find a sampling in Vancouver poet and editor Chelene Knight’s “Dear Current Occupant,” a series of short texts on the dynamics between renters and landlords.
“Do not
cause damage to the walls, doors, or windows
Do not
smoke inside. There will be a charge.
Do not
allow others to reside with you. There will be a charge.”
Read the full poem online here. And support a great literary journal by subscribing.
That’s this evening’s selection of news & ideas from across Cascadia. Enjoy the warm weather headed our way this weekend! ? –Andrew Engelson
Photo credits: scene from the Overdose Protection Society’s site in Vancouver copyright Jackie Dives