When Conservatives Are More Liberal than the Liberals

“In fact the war on drugs has been a disaster, creating failed states in the developing world even as addiction has flourished in the rich world.”

This sentence was taken from an article in The Economist published few months ago, and I thought it would be a good idea to bring it back here on our blog, since it’s about legalizing drugs. The Economist is certainly not well-known for being liberal, yet the magazine has been advocating the legalization of drugs for over 20 years and has published articles on the topics a few times, but still there is no changes. This article is definitely a must read, since it has greatly changed the perceptions of many about legalizing drugs among Liberals and Tories altogether.

The article basically argues that policies on drug addiction in the last 100 years have failed (is it me or we’ve already heard that before?), and by legalizing drugs we could actually regulate and control them better. The Economist doesn’t see legalization as the perfect solution, but as the lesser of 2 evils.

It’s a short read and it will probably change your life, or maybe just your day, but it’ll make you think for sure. The business student you are should also be amazed at this business opportunity, or not. Thoughts, ideas and screams of anger are welcome in the comment section.

The Necessity of Measuring our Impact and Success

We, as business students, are very concerned with success and how to measure it, but also with the impact we can have. We obviously want this event to be successful and here are our goals and how we plan to measure our success.

Main Objectives of the Event

The event aims at educating business students on drug addiction in general as well as the policies around it. As future managers and entrepreneurs, they have the ability and the knowledge necessary to bring a new perspective on drug addiction. They will have the opportunity to learn and understand why drug addiction is a disease and why treating it is economically viable, all religious, political or personal beliefs put aside. This event aims at filling a gap on a topic that is hardly ever discussed in class or in textbooks.

Desirable Outcomes

A website will be setup so participants can contribute their ideas afterward. The point is to keep the discussion alive and having a brainstorm so even more ideas of new policies can be generated. Having business students getting involved in their community in order to help reduce drug addiction, and directly help drug addicts is also a movement this event would like to create.

Measuring the Goals and Impacts

There is three parts as to whether this project is successful, one is before the event, the other one is during the event and the last one is after the event. The ultimate way to measure the success of what has been done before the event is whether or not the event can get people to fill the 120 seats. To measure the success of the event in itself, surveys will be given to the panel as well as the students so adjustments can be made for future years to come. Finally, to measure the success after the event, the website will be the main, but not the only, tool being used.

We think those goals and measurements are realistic and attainable, if you disagree please use the comment section to butcher our rational.

Meeting with Sam Thiara

When planning to organize a big event, getting the right people to help and advise is paramount, but the problem is that too often people don’t know what they’re doing or lack experience. Fortunately, here at SFU, we have a great resource when it comes to organizing, planning, and managing great projects and this person is Sam Thiara. I guess most of you have at least heard of him, and if not then open your BBA student agenda and there are 2 glossy pages, Sam’s picture is on one of them. One of his official titles is called “Manager of Student Engagement and Recruitment” another is called “Student Affairs Officer”. But the thing is that Sam does everything and knows everyone and his job title will never clearly define everything he’s involved in and does in the business department. A short and incomplete list of what Sam manages would be: Competitions, Student Development, International Exchanges, Conferences, and he’s also involved with and advise business clubs and associations.

So as you probably understand, Sam is the person you want on board with your project, and it seemed natural for us to try to get Sam on board. It took many attempts to successfully have a meeting with him, but the wait was worth it. In what seems to be 5 minutes, but was probably more like 15 minutes, Sam has given us 2 contacts, advises on funding, given 2 website URLs which turned out to be great resources, he also gave his opinion and advised on how to maximize our chances of success and even offered more help!

So from here, we will try to get funding from at least 2 levels of government: municipal and provincial since they are the ones more closely affected by drug addiction in DTES and are therefore more likely to help us, and Sam has also contacts at these 2 levels.

Sam also advised that it would be lengthy and complicated to get a credit for the seminar, but it could be done with determination and good arguments. One good point he has brought is that the first event is all about numbers, how many people you can get, then those people will talk to other friends and the word will spread. So we might have to change our strategy a little in this regard.  Another idea was to have a panel discussion with a broad selection of experts: health care expert, DTES drug addict, government representant, someone close to the cause that think we’re not doing enough and maybe even someone from the 2010 committee.

One last thing that Sam talked about and that will get its own post is called Vancouver Agreement and involves the 3 levels of government in an attempt to to promote and support sustainable economic, social and community development. We’ll blog more about this initiative.

We invited Sam to come to our presentation on Monday, to be part of the booth and have a chance to network (because that is Sam’s strength). Of course someone like Sam is busy and he might not be able to attend because of prior engagements, but we keep our fingers crossed!

SALOME, one more solution for drug addicts in Vancouver

I came across an article published in The Province July 8th, about InnerChange Foundation which is an organization that does research on exit strategies for drug addicts. They recently came up with a new solution following the recommendations of the Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness (SALOME). Opioid is a chemical that can be used to stabilize drug addicts and is seens as very promising in DTES. The research has the support of John Reynolds a former Conservative MP. This is a good news since the Tories have been well known for the their hardline position and policies against drug addiction, in particular against the successful InSite program. In the article, Mr. Reynolds is quoted as saying: “It is about time that we end the stigma around addiction and start thinking about this as treatable illness instead of a moral failing.” which is aligned with our own belief and summarize the main message of this blog.

The InnerChange Foundation brings a wind of change in the city by its very nature of researching new efficient and realistic solutions (therapies, drugs) that will help drug addicts to quit. This means they have an open mind and have to face unpopular and misunderstood programs in which they give away less damaging and less addictive drugs in the hope to facilitate quitting. We think the foundation is on the right way by looking at the problem for a different perspective while educating students directly at school. The new generation will most likely have a better understanding and hopefully be touched by the misery of the dozen of people living on DTES. Prejudices are already slowly shifting towards a desire from the citizens to help and try new bold strategies that have never been used before.