The Fruitlands

Fruitlands is an intersectional and ecological approach to radical health and wellness. It is a reflection of years of struggle with use - alongside years of social justice organizing and maintaining sobriety. We specialize in low income and no-income counseling as we believe everyone should have access to counseling. Our services are on a true sliding scale and we encourage supportive community members to donate to continue this open practice. "The true teacher defends his pupils against their own personal influence. They inspire self-trust. They guide their eyes from themselves to the spirit that quickens them. They will have no disciples. A noble artist, they have visions of excellence and revelations of beauty which they have neither impersonated in character nor embodied in words. Their life and teachings are but studies for yet nobler ideals." - Amos Alcott

[thefruitlands-blog]

Four drug policy groups monitoring international negotiations underway on reforms to United Nations drug control policies say Canada has joined ranks with China, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and Russia in aggressively opposing European endorsements of health policies aimed at reducing harms, such as HIV transmission, among drug users.

Canada also opposes the participation of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in future UN drug policymaking sessions, observers report from the Vienna negotiations.

[thefruitlands-blog]

Rob Ford, Harm Reduction (Blog)

A personal insight into the Rob Ford drug scandal, harm reduction, and the depths of human hypocrisy

[psicologicamenteblog]

[chaevelvets-blog]

[kittydoom]

Dave Chappelle speaking some truth.

[thefruitlands-blog]

Health Canada decision to allow prescription heroin will save lives, Pivot lawyer says

Health Canada’s decision to provide prescription heroin to certain addicts will save lives in Vancouver, according to a lawyer representing them. “This is a big step forward,” Pivot lawyer Scott Bernstein said Friday, referring to a decision to approve access to heroin for at least 15 participants exiting a Vancouver study.

[thefruitlands-blog]

The Rational Choices of Crack Addicts

“Eighty to 90 percent of people are not negatively affected by drugs, but in the scientific literature nearly 100 percent of the reports are negative,” Dr. Hart said. “There’s a skewed focus on pathology. We scientists know that we get more money if we keep telling Congress that we’re solving this terrible problem. We’ve played a less than honorable role in the war on drugs.”

[thefruitlands-blog]

Insite survives 10 years on

"In the meantime, the Harper government continues to discount the studies and the demands for more injection sites in Canada. And that attitude is what enrages Montaner, who is considered to be one of the world’s leading HIV/AIDS doctors. The Harper government, he said, has “gotten away with murder.” “The draconian, Machiavellian manoeuvres emerging from Stephen Harper’s office have been able to prevent implementation of these types of programs across the country at the cost of many lives that, ultimately, they are responsible for.”

[positivedoodles]

[thefruitlands-blog]

Painkiller addictions worst drug epidemic in US history | Al Jazeera America

Fatal overdoses have reached epidemic levels, exceeding those from heroin and cocaine combined, according to the CDC

"In the United States, enough painkillers were prescribed in 2010 to medicate every American adult around the clock for one month."

[lizemeddings]

not 100% sure, but quite sure.

[connotativewords]

I show my demons, hoping that you won’t one day use them against me.

Haiku on Utter Faith [ jl ] (via connotativewords)

[thefruitlands-blog]

Sentencing Commission in sweeping review of prison terms for drug dealers

Agency votes unanimously to review sentence guidelines in move that could herald reductions in US prison population

[thefruitlands-blog]

The Tyee  A Chance to Change BC's Pot Laws

This fall, Sensible BC launches an ambitious initiative to decriminalize marijuana.

[therapistconfessions-deactivate]

“If you enter into healing, be prepared to lose everything. Healing is a ravaging force to which nothing seems sacred or inviolate. As my original pain releases itself in healing, it rips to shreds the structures and foundations I built in weakness and ignorance.”

Ely Fuller “The Courage to Heal”

[attndotcom]

Wise words…

[thefruitlands-blog]

[zuky]

The major finding of our experiments is still shocking. When whites were presented with an argument against the death penalty or three strikes that emphasized the racial bias of the policy, they became more (not less) supportive of capital punishment and three strikes laws.

Jon Hurwitz and Mark Peffley, political scientists and authors of Justice in America: The Separate Realities of Blacks and Whites, in a recent interview with the Washington Post’s Wonkblog about their academic studies documenting the “separate realities" and perceptions about the US criminal justice system based on race.

The whole interview is worth reading, but I wanted to emphasize this particular passage because it offers a stark and sobering window into white racism: when white people are presented with the notion that the criminal justice system is racist, they become more supportive of the death penalty and mandatory minimums.

To put it even more simply: most white people like the racist imprisonment and execution of Black folks. That’s literally the world that a majority of white people want to live in — a violently racist world — because they believe racist violence makes the world a better place for whites. Most whites support institutional racism, which is why they built it and continue to defend it and maintain it.

(via zuky)