Taking back what's ours! – Episode 1: The Netherlands, Belgium and France

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Taking back what's ours! – Episode 1: The Netherlands, Belgium and France

9 July 2020

Drugreporter and INPUD presents the first episode of a 10 chapter long series documenting how people who use drugs around the world have organised and formed collectives and unions to protect and defend the health and human rights of their community. The first episode uncovers the history of the movement in the Netherlands, and how it inspired activists in Belgium and France.

Since January 1981, when the first drug user group ‘Junkie-bond’ was established in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the drug user movement has grown exponentially: people who use drugs have continued to organise and form collectives and unions to protect and defend the health and human rights of their community. This struggle for autonomy, self-determination and empowerment of people who use drugs has been, and is, a global phenomenon.

The Rights Reporter Foundation (Drugreporter) and the International Network of People who use Drugs (INPUD) produced this documentary film series that aims to document how the movement of people who use drugs have formed around the world, how they maintain momentum and mobilise, and how they undertake their work and show resilience in a context of criminalisation, marginalisation and oppression.