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“VANDU” redirects here. For the Estonian village, see Vandu.

The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users or VANDU is a not-for-profit organization[1] and advocacy group based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The group believes that all drug users should have their own rights and freedoms. The group’s members have been actively involved in lobbying for support of Insite, North America’s first safe injection site, located in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.[2]

Its board of directors consists entirely of current and former drug addicts.[3] It was co-founded by Ann Livingston and Bud Osborn.[1] Livingston had previously established a short-lived injection site called “Back Alley” on Powell Street in 1995.[4]

The group received a grant in 2022 from the city to perform street cleaning, but the contract was rescinded for not performing the work and instead, using the grant funds for other purposes.

Background

VANDU was created in September 1997, to advocate for the delivery of health care services to drug users living in Vancouver who had been exposed to increasing rates of hepatitis C and HIV as a result of sharing needles,[1] and to address risks to their health, such as drug overdose.[2] It has operated an unauthorized drug consumption site and provided assisted illegal drug use for about four years until it was shut down in 2014.[5]

A few dozen people first met in Oppenheimer Park on 9 September 1997 in response to messages posted by Livingston on utility poles throughout the Downtown Eastside.[4] The assembled group of people decided to form an organization, and adopted the name Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users a year later.[4] One of the attendees was Donald MacPherson, who later became drug-policy coordinator for Vancouver municipal government, and who also established the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition.[4]

Membership grew to about 100 individuals in a few months, and eventually to over 2,000.[6]: 10  The organization’s membership is open to all individuals, but those elected to the board of directors must be current or former addicts, and votes at the organization’s meetings may only be cast by current or former addicts.[6]

City of Vancouver grant misdirection

VANDU was given a $320,000 grant from the City of Vancouver in 2022 to provide street cleaning services in the Hastings Street encampment. Questions were raised when VANDU couldn’t be seen working and street cleanliness continued to deteriorate. The organization eventually admitted to diverting grant intended for street cleaning into its general funds.[7] $160,000 of the grant was paid out, however the City of Vancouver terminated the contract when services were not delivered as expected.[8][9]. Ultimately, VANDU did release a financial report on their work, which showed that a significant portion of funds was dedicated to employment opportunities for DTES residents to support in keeping the block safer, particularly from fires. [10] The city council voted to deny VANDU a $7,500 grant for arts program in 2023 for the gross misuse of public funds in 2022 making it the only grant out of 84 grants recommended by city staff to be denied by city council.[11] After this $7500 funding was cut, a public fundraiser raised more than $10,000 to replace it.[12]

Actions and services

The organization also engages in local issues pertaining to Downtown Eastside area residents.[13]

VANDU defends harm reduction services and supervised injection facilities.[14] In recent years, VANDU has been engaging with the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF)[15] to provide “safe supply” services.[16] The group handed out cocaine, meth and heroin to users in July 2021 in which city councilor Jean Swanson participated in the distribution.[17] Washington Examiner said it’s uncertain if substances distributed by VANDU was obtained lawfully.[17] The DULF founders Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx have been charged with possession with intent to distribute in May 2024.[18][19] The pair had sourced the illicit drugs that was distributed by DULF and VANDU together through the dark web.[20][21] A legal judicial review on the Canadian government’s rejection to sanction DULF and VANDU’s compassion club has not yet been decided as of March 2025.[22]

Select publications

VANDU and the groups’ members have also contributed to scholarly, peer-reviewed research on the lived realities of drug users and on the impacts of drug policies.

·The power of people who use drugs as mass media influencers in changing public opinion during the global overdose epidemic[23]

·Activism and scientific research: 20 years of community action by the Vancouver area network of drug users[24]

·Police seizure of drugs without arrest among people who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada, before provincial ‘decriminalization’ of simple possession: a cohort study[25]

·Creating safe, inclusive spaces for hospital-based health care staff and people who use drugs: an exploratory qualitative study in Vancouver, Canada[26]

·Building New Approaches to Risk Reduction With Social Networks and People Who Smoke Illegal Drugs From Participatory Community-Based Research[27]”

References

  1. ^ a b c “Vancouver drug users’ group VANDU has led prevention policy”. Maclean’s. The Canadian Press. 16 July 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  2. ^ a b Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (2009). “VANDU”. Archived from the original on 20 November 2008. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
  3. ^ Bishop, Greg (5 February 2010). “In the Shadow of the Olympics (Published 2010)”. The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 February 2021. Another group is Vandu, or the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, which fills its board exclusively with addicts past and present.
  4. ^ a b c d Lupick, Travis (4 September 2017). “The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users looks back on 20 years fighting for human rights”. The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  5. ^ Kerr, Thomas; Mitra, Sanjana; Kennedy, Mary Clare; McNeil, Ryan (18 May 2017). “Supervised injection facilities in Canada: past, present, and future”. Harm Reduction Journal. 14 (1): 28. doi:10.1186/s12954-017-0154-1. ISSN 1477-7517. PMC 5437687. PMID 28521829.
  6. ^ a b Harati, Donna (2015). “Inside Insite: How a Localized Social Movement Led the Way for North America’s First Legal Supervised Injection Site”. Harvard Law School. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  7. ^ Chan, Kenneth (17 January 2023). “VANDU blocked by Vancouver City Council from receiving new public funds | News”. Daily Hive. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  8. ^ Ayers, Shawn; Nassar, Hana Mae (18 January 2023). “VANDU arts, culture grant pulled due to ‘misuse’ of prior funds: City of Vancouver”. vancouver.citynews.ca. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  9. ^ “City of Vancouver ends $320,000 Block Stewardship contract awarded to VANDU – BC | Globalnews.ca”. Global News. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  10. ^ https://vandu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/OURSTREETS-FINAL-Financial-Report-July-11-Dec-9-2022.docx-1.pdf. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ^ Kulkarni, Akshay (18 January 2023). “Vancouver drug user group denied city funding for art program”. CBC. Retrieved 24 August 2023.
  12. ^ St. Denis, Jen. “Donors Step Up After Vancouver Council Axes Funding to VANDU Art Program”. The Tyee. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
  13. ^ Himmelright, Breanna (25 August 2022). “Series of Downtown Eastside building fires alarm residents, advocates” – via CBC. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. ^ Reynolds, Christopher (22 August 2021). “O’Toole would allow safe injection sites, but stops short of decriminalization”. CTVNews. Archived from the original on 20 August 2023. Retrieved 1 September 2022. Garth Mullins, a representative of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), said the Tory approach marks an improvement from Harper’s tough-on-crime stance, but he believes a focus on recovery and abstinence is “misplaced” as it misidentifies the crux of the crisis.
  15. ^ “Drug user compassion groups in B.C. see success in safe supply distribution”. Pique Newsmagazine. 31 August 2022. Retrieved 1 September 2022.
  16. ^ McDonough, David (22 June 2022). “Rethinking Canada’s misguided ideological approach to the opioid epidemic: Jeremy Eckert Devine for Inside Policy”. Macdonald-Laurier Institute. Retrieved 1 September 2022. The Canadian Association of People who use Drugs (CAPUD) and the Vancouver Association Network of Drug Users (VANDU) both appear to deny that drug use is intrinsically harmful. Rather, they imply it is the barriers created by prohibition that makes drug use dangerous.
  17. ^ a b Dima, Jake (16 July 2021). “Free meth, heroin, and cocaine given to users outside Canadian police precinct”. Washington Examiner. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  18. ^ Joannou, Ashley (22 July 2024). “Years after Insite ruling, B.C. drug policy landscape still in flux”. CBC. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  19. ^ Cecco, Leyland (10 June 2024). “Canadian drug advocacy group founders charged with trafficking”. The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  20. ^ “Canadians who sold purer drugs in bid to stop overdoses challenge charges”. www.bbc.com. 15 October 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  21. ^ “Drug Users Liberation Front fiasco raises questions about government complicity in illegal activity”. The Orca. 25 June 2024. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  22. ^ Curtis, Skyler. [Donors Step Up After Vancouver Council Axes Funding to VANDU Art Program “In Canada, The Fight for Compassion Clubs Rages On in Court”]. TalkingDrugs.org. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  23. ^ https://doi.org/10.1186/s13011-026-00709-6. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  24. ^ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5964704/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  25. ^ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12954-023-00833-7. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  26. ^ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40114163/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  27. ^ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1609406918771247. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

Further reading

  • VANDU – Official website