Raise Shit!: Social Action Saving Lives

Revealing a social justice movement that culminated through community activism in Vancouver’s downtown east side, this account documents the opening of the first official safe injection site. Told from the point of view of drug users—those most affected by drug policy, political decisions, and policing—this narrative is conveyed through a montage of poetry and photos of early Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users meetings, journal entries from the Back Alley—the unofficial safe injection site—and excerpts from significant health and media reports. Chronicling the harms of prohibition and emphasizing the concepts of kindness, awakening, and collective action, this recollection spotlights a community of prophets who rebuked the system, bringing hope into situations of apparent impossibility.