Matt Baril

I haven’t grown up in Vancouver, but I clearly remember the first time I went to DTES. I had landed a couple of hours earlier and I was with my luggage’s on my way to my new apartment. I was in a 135, in awe with Vancouver’s nature, architecture and people and it was a shock to see those poor people, sitting in the streets. I think drug addicts on DTES deserve more respect, attention and help than what they get. I haven’t personally nor my close friends or family been affected by drug addiction, but my wife is a social worker and she comes back home with those sad stories about how people feel resourceless and powerless even though they really want to get out of the vicious circle. It seems like we, Vancouverites, got used to DTES and consider people there as failures, rather than humans. I believe it’s time to give dignity to people that are affected by the disease of drug addiction and education is the first step toward reaching this goal.

What I’ve Learned

The one thing that really surprised me in this project is how easily you can get people involved, how much people want to help and contribute on drug addiction policies. Ben has contacted over 10 people and all of them were interested in our project and at least 2 of them wanted to be directly involved. Those people are for the most, people in managerial positions in big non-for-profit and government associations. I personally contacted the Vice President of Communication for SIFE and Sam Thiara and both of them were interested to help right away. This leads me to believe that people want to do something, they want to be part of a big project, or even a small one, that will change things. I think people are fed up of the status quo and they’re ready to contribute their time, knowledge and money in this issue.

I also learned that there are so many organizations and associations out there that are trying to help drug addicts, but still they, as a group, are failing. It would be very difficult to point out the exact reasons for that since it’s a very complicated matter, but I think a lack of general education is one of the reason. It’s been great to work on this project with 3 great colleagues and I really hope our project will go forward and will change Business Students’ perceptions on drug addiction.