About Us
HARD Law is a student club based out of the law school at the University of Victoria. Our work takes place on the land of the lÉ™k̓ʷəŋən People, now known as the Esquimalt and the Songhees nations, and the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples. We are grateful to live on these lands and to learn from these communities, and are committed to dismantling the policies, institutions, and attitudes that were brought here with colonization and continue to produce violence today. We recognize that the contaminated drug crisis has had a heightened impact on Indigenous people and communities, and we understand that these laws, policies, and attitudes have played a significant role in creating and sustaining this ongoing crisis.
HARD Law started in 2021 as a group of law students who recognized gaps in our education around drug policy and the role of law in the ongoing contaminated drug crisis. We wanted a space to talk openly and honestly about the real impacts of laws and policies on the lives of people who use drugs ("PWUD"). Our name comes from two areas of drug policy that we are especially passionate about: Harm Reduction and Decriminalization.
We are activists, academics, frontline workers, people who use drugs, and people who have quit using drugs. Drug users are our friends and family, both alive and passed. We are directly impacted by drug prohibition, but are also afforded great privilege because of our position as future legal professionals. HARD Law is our attempt to use that privilege for positive change.
HARD Law’s three main goals are to connect with our community, fill gaps in our education, and help to build more caring and equitable systems, institutions, laws, and policies. We are here to listen, learn, provide support, and amplify the voices of people with lived experience.
We aim to contribute to the broader movement for liberating people who use drugs and abolishing the systems, institutions, and legal myths that inflict intentional and continuing violence upon them, and which undermine their autonomy, dignity, and power.
