Women drug abusers top agenda
A New York advocate will address the Drug Policy Forum dinner
"Reaching the New Untouchables: Women Who Use Drugs" will be the keynote talk Wednesday at the annual dinner meeting of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii.
Corinne Carey, deputy director of Break the Chains: Communities of Color and the War on Drugs in New York, will be the keynote speaker, according to the drug policy group.
Her organization's mission is to replace punitive drug polices with alternative policies that promote racial justice, public health and human rights, according to a news release from the forum.
The 5:30 p.m. event at the Japanese Cultural Center also will present the Drug Policy Forum's Ho'omaluhia (Peacemaker) Award to Dr. Tricia Wright, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine, for starting Hawaii's first perinatal clinic for women who abuse substances.
"We have to stop thinking of women and substance abuse as mothers, or pregnant women, or women who are being abused," Carey said in the news release. "We need to view them as people who need help, specifically from the growing tide of methamphetamine addiction."
The annual dinner meeting is open to the public, with tickets on sale at $45 for the public, $35 for members, and $25 for students.
Anyone wishing to attend can call 988-4386 or info@dpfhi.org.