Bud Osborn Character Analysis

Bud Osborn was an influential Vancouver-based poet and drug activist who founded the organization VANDU and spearheaded the campaign to build North America’s first safe injection site in Downtown Eastside. After a severely traumatic childhood, Osborn began using heroin in college. He found that it made him feel at peace for the first time in his life. After learning about how countries like Portugal effectively reduced the harms associated with drug use through decriminalization and public health policy, Osborn started holding political meetings and organizing his fellow drug users to push for similar changes in Vancouver. Eventually, he even persuaded the city’s mayor, Philip Owen, to give him a seat on the city’s public health board. Osborn’s activism helped him form a sense of community and connection he’d never experienced before. Hari uses Osborn’s life as an example not only of how activism can help change drug policies, but also how even the most vulnerable and disempowered populations—like drug addicts—can achieve change.