Lecturer advocates for drug user rights

Posted: January 29, 2013 11:00 a.m.

In her delivery of the 2013 Woodrow Lloyd Lecture, activist and community organizer Ann Livingston will discuss how the grassroots drug user group Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) pushes for legal and policy changes that ensure an evidence-based public health approach to the use of legal and illegal drugs, using civil disobedience, research, documentation, networking and advocacy.

Ann Livingston has made significant contributions toward improving access to health care for people who use illegal drugs. As co-founder and former executive director of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and in her current position as volunteer with the BC/Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors, she has inspired policy makers and health professionals to view illegal drugs users as citizens deserving of compassion, care and human rights. Likewise, through her leadership and activism Livingston has aimed to ensure that drug users are organized and personally and politically empowered to work toward ending senseless deaths from preventable infectious diseases and drug overdose.

The Woodrow Lloyd lecture is presented annually by the Faculty of Arts, to recognize the outstanding contributions of former Saskatchewan Premier Woodrow Lloyd to the fields of education and social welfare.

All are welcome. Free parking on campus will be available in lot 10 - pay parking is available across campus at kiosk and meters (campus parking map). Refreshments to follow the lecture. Please call 306-585-4226 for more information or visit the lecture website.

2013 Woodrow Lloyd Lecture
'Can Civil Disobedience Ensure Health Care Access for Drug Users? Why Engage in Civil Disobedience? Who Can and Who Can't?', by Ann Livingston
Wednesday 6 February 2013
7:30 pm, Classroom Building, room CL 112
University of Regina main campus