Every August 31, International Overdose Awareness Day brings people together around the world to take action on preventable overdose deaths and the legislated violence of drug policy. On August 31, Weaving Our Worlds is launching a 3-week wage solidarity fundraiser as part of efforts to end the drug war. We encourage everyone to redistribute one day’s wages to local drug liberation groups, like DULF whom our wage solidarity campaign will support.

DONATE HERE: https://chuffed.org/project/dulf-wage-solidarity

The average daily wage in so-called BC is $270. We need just 50 people to donate one day’s wage to help us make this goal! Any amount helps!

What is Wage Solidarity?

Wage Solidarity is not charity. Wage solidarity is mutual aid that recognizes that many of us benefit from the War on Drugs – those who are settlers, those whose wages come from the drug war (social services/health/policy/legal work), those with financial and class privilege, those in the imperial core, those with stable housing, and those who are not subject to the daily violence and criminalization of policing. We invite everyone to join this wage solidarity campaign as a concrete action to fight the war on drugs and help us raise $10,000 in 3 weeks.

DONATE HERE: https://chuffed.org/project/dulf-wage-solidarity

What is the War on Drugs?

The War on Drugs is a deliberately punitive war that destabilizes communities and blocks access to care. At a local & global level, the War on Drugs has been a centuries-long war of isolation and repression:

  • Creating imperialist destabilization from the Philippines to Colombia
  • Furthering settler-colonial violence and genocide on Turtle Island
  • Justifying anti-migrant racism since the era of Chinese exclusion
  • More gender-based violence despite the rhetoric of safety
  • Worsening the capitalist war on the poor through policing, prisons, border controls, gentrification, and involuntary treatment.

Close to 51,000 Canadians died from drug toxicity between 2016 and 2024, making the unregulated toxic drug supply one of the most pressing health issues. In 2024, First Nations people died at 6.7 times the rate of other BC residents, and First Nations women died at 11.6 times the rate of other women. By focusing on “individual addiction” instead of settler colonial gendered violence, drug policy is Indigenous genocide.

At the same time, around 61,798 drug arrests took place across the country. This enforcement maintains anti-Black and racialized surveillance, colonial violence, gentrification & the capitalist regulation of space, and justification for mass displacement – from street sweeps to deportations. Fighting the War on Drugs isn’t just about solidarity with people who use drugs; it’s an abolitionist struggle against all criminalization, capitalism, and colonialism.

In Canada, the rise of the right is consolidating against drug users – whether through dehumanization of people who use drugs, “law and order” policies justifying more policing and prisons, or scapegoating drug users for houselessness and mental health crises. The neoliberal manufacturing of inequality, impoverishment, and despair is increasingly blamed on migrants, trans people, Muslims, Indigenous land defenders and people who use drugs. Fighting the war on drugs is fighting fascism!

WOW Statement on Ending the Global War on Drugs: https://www.weavingourworlds.ca/wow-statement-on-ending-the-global-war-on-drugs/

Who Are We Fundraising For?

For this wage solidarity campaign, we are raising funds for the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) because of their urgent need for legal defence and upcoming court battles for harm reduction. DULF ran a Cocaine, Heroin, and Methamphetamine Compassion Club pilot program to safely test and freely distribute drugs to people who would otherwise be at the mercy of a toxic and deadly drug supply. Now, DULF co-founders are facing criminal charges for their compassionate and life-saving work. DULF is in a long constitutional legal battle to defend harm reduction, challenge outdated drug laws, and demand justice for those disproportionately affected by the toxic drug crisis. This case has the potential to set a precedent against the drug war; join us in supporting this collective fight back!

Donate your day’s wage and join this wage solidarity campaign as a concrete action to fight the war on drugs and help us raise $10,000 in 2 weeks.

DONATE HERE: https://chuffed.org/project/dulf-wage-solidarity

There are many groups, especially peer-based groups, for everyone to follow and support including Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society, Coalition of Peers Dismantling the Drug War, Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction, Moms Stop the Harm, Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs, and Crackdown Podcast.