Derby Blue

Recovering daily from most things.

[Derby Blue @DerbyBlue11]

@iamkennethchan @KarmSumal @DailyHiveVan Please advise your staff NOT to put out videos or images of any people in a group with "anonymous " in the name. Vancouver media has been honouring this please do the same and remove all your videos. It's the right thing to do. Thank you.

[Derby Blue @DerbyBlue11]

@NewWestTimes Please remove video of Alcoholics "Anonymous". Vancouver media has ben very respectful in honouring this, please do the same.Thank you.

[MaggieMay 🇨🇦🇪🇺🇮🇪 @CailinasEirinn]

@guyfelicella Do what Finland did. 🤷‍♀️

https://t.co/uG4l5HqOmz

[guyfelicella🇨🇦🍁 @guyfelicella]

To those who apparently haven’t got the message yet: STOP FILMING PEOPLE EXPERIENCING MENTAL HEALTH CRISES AND/OR DRUG POISONING. Just bc it’s legal to film in public places doesn’t make it OK.
Instead of filming & posting for clicks - which accomplishes nothing - consider acting like a decent human: turn off your camera, and ask if they need help.

TLDR: You suck🤮

[guyfelicella🇨🇦🍁 @guyfelicella]

Long thread here about the weaponization of journalism against people in recovery🧵PLEASE READ.

It seems I’m next on the hit list for @NationalPost opinion writer @adamzivo. He regularly threatens people he doesn’t agree with by sending “media inquiries” suggesting a false & unflattering story is on the way. Looks like it’s my turn!

He’s dug up 3-decade-old court records from a theft case (NOT MINE) against a woman who was my girlfriend in the ‘90s. We were both in our early 20s when she stole money from her employer. The records reference her attorney’s argument to try and get her off: her lawyer argued that she stole the money because I told her to do it … she claimed I threatened her.

I didn’t. It wasn’t true then and it’s not true now — which is why I was never charged with any of the things her lawyer said I did.

I want to be clear: I do have a criminal record — I’m not proud of it but I am very open about it. My story of addiction and recovery is like many others, and I’m honest about it to try and help people understand the traps of addiction, to serve as a cautionary tale for young people, and — I hope — to inspire others who are caught in a cycle of addiction and crime that a better life is possible.

Anyone can look up my charges and convictions, they’re all on the public record. In this case, I wasn’t involved, I didn’t make her do it, and I didn’t threaten her.

To answer Adam’s accusatory and inflammatory questions:
➡️ The case in question — which was not against me — was about theft, not trafficking or exploitation of a young woman.
➡️ She wasn’t “a victim,” she was the accused, and we were both in our early 20s.
➡️ Since I did not exploit or threaten her, no I did not need to make amends. If you’re curious, she has never apologized or made amends to me for falsely blaming me for her actions.
➡️ When I speak publicly, I talk about the crimes I committed to support my addiction. I talk about my shame, my regrets, the emotional and physical scars I carry from that time. But NO, I DON’T “ACKNOWLEDGE” THINGS I DIDN’T DO.

I'm very grateful that my recovery has been supported by the people and community who surround me. I have gratitude for my wife and our family, for our home, and because I’m doing meaningful work. These are all things 👆that make my ongoing recovery possible.

Adam is politically motivated. With this “media inquiry” he’s threatening to “expose” me for something I didn’t do, and I can only assume, hopes I will lose the life I’ve worked so hard to rebuild.

It’s beliefs, behaviors and actions like Adam’s — against people with substance use and mental health issues — that can make it so difficult for people like me to recover. There are countless people looking for a way out of addiction, but their past prevents them from pursuing and maintaining recovery. Even decades later, there’s always someone who will try to take you down by “exposing” your past.

Hey Adam — preventing people from living a productive life in recovery by shaming them for actions from 30 years ago IS NOT A “COMMON-SENSE SOLUTION” TO THE DRUG CRISIS.

It is constantly surprising to me that anyone looks to you for expertise in this crisis when all you seem to do is tear people down. SMDH.

#ToxicDrugCrisis #NationalPost

[guyfelicella🇨🇦🍁 @guyfelicella]

I’m not impressed by the way @JohnRustad4BC promises different things to different people depending on what he thinks they want to hear.

So I was glad to see him put on the spot during this morning’s debate, and asked why he told ME that supervised consumption sites would NOT be shut down if he becomes premier, but put out a press release promising he WOULD shut them down. In the debate he answered by saying he’ll turn them into “recovery intake centres.”

Hey John - THEY ALREADY ARE RECOVERY INTAKE CENTRES. It was the staff at a Supervised Consumption Site who not only reversed my overdose but also connected me to detox & recovery.

Without supervised consumption, I wouldn’t be here today, and neither would my kids. These campaign promises to “shut down drug den injection sites” are misleading, harmful, and will hurt families like mine.

There seems to be no way to know what he actually intends to do, but I sure hope if he wins he won’t shut them down.

⭐️ SUPERVISED CONSUMPTION SAVES LIVES ⭐️

#BCpoli #AllTheTools

[Dan Wetzel @DanWetzel]

First tumbling pass is not real https://t.co/EbFOln7oil

[Tansu Yegen @TansuYegen]

Whoa! In Switzerland, a mobile overpass bridge is used to carry out road work without stopping traffic👏

[Calm_Dr 🩺 @Bezeley_MBChB]

@fasc1nate Incredible🔥

[Derby Blue @DerbyBlue11]

@Bell5Verity @beggywilliamz Good one!

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Musician and artist Yohei Kisanuki creates some trippy zoetropic art using a whiteboard and marker atop a spinning potter’s wheel

[📹 limbatrip]

[guyfelicella🇨🇦🍁 @guyfelicella]

Whenever I compare alcohol to opioids, I’m guaranteed to get outrage (watch comment space below 👇)

Yet they’re both psychoactive substances and if you consume too much you can become incoherent, get sick, pass out & die.

Alcohol poisoning is rare because we have a REGULATED SAFER SUPPLY. You know what’s in it, you know how strong it is, you can buy it at the liquor store, or, at a supervised consumption site: A BAR.

Thanks to having a regulated safer supply of alcohol, supervision at a bar/restaurant means trained staff will check your ID & try not to overserve you (or maybe they’ll persuade you to have another!)

Because there’s no widely available supply of regulated opioids, at an overdose prevention site, trained staff literally save lives. They check drugs, give people access to clean supplies, reverse overdoses if necessary, provide medical care or help people access it, and connect people to detox and treatment when they’re ready. They don’t judge. (Note to those who think supervised consumption sites should taper people off drugs. NO. That’s a surefire way to make sure they don’t come back.)

Besides being poisoned with unexpected & sometimes deadly contaminants, the other difference with unregulated opioids is STIGMA.

At a supervised consumption site for alcohol (A BAR), you’ll find people to cheers with 🍻, to chat & laugh with.

People who use drugs or struggle with addiction are often ostracized from their communities and forced to use alone in the darkest places. It’s a very painful loneliness. Supervised consumption sites provide care & human connection. People to chat & laugh with. It’s from these relationships, where trust is formed, that people often find the encouragement & support to try treatment & recovery.

That’s called harm reduction.

#ToxicDrugCrisis #HarmReduction #BCpoli

[The Sikh Community of 'BC' / Salish Land @BCSikhs]

Please note: Gurdwaras do not have facilities or dedicated outreach staff to serve as a warming center, overnight shelter, etc. but anyone is welcome to enjoy a hot vegetarian meal, sit quietly in the prayer hall, use the washroom, and get some respite from the cold weather.

[• @Alhamdhulillaah]

Cat jumped on imam during Tarawih, and he handled it perfectly. 😂

[Derby Blue @DerbyBlue11]

@dumbbeezie It always is Beezie

[Greta Thunberg @GretaThunberg]

yes, please do enlighten me. email me at [email protected]

[dominic dyer @domdyer70]

Hell on Earth

[karen ward @kwardvancouver]

what if Vancouver had a network of community health centres, one in every neighborhood, with a team of family medicine practitioners and specialized health & social services connected?

we could use the Community P̷o̷l̷i̷c̷i̷n̷g̷ Centres.

#DefundTheVPD
#vanpoli

[guyfelicella🇨🇦🍁 @guyfelicella]

For all the folks in the back: Homeless people don't have to be drug free to deserve housing!