When People Go Missing Between the Lines 💔➡️💙

 By Tina Winterlik (Zipolita)

This week I read a statement from The Vanished Project about the end of drug decriminalization in BC. It wasn’t political. It wasn’t ideological. It was street-level truth. 👣

And what they said matters.

They reminded us of something many still confuse:

Decriminalization is legal ⚖️
Safe supply is medical 🏥

Two different questions.
Two different responsibilities.

BC tried to roll both out halfway — and then blamed both when the system buckled.

Safe supply stayed underfunded.
Treatment beds stayed scarce.
Housing stayed out of reach.
Outreach carried what institutions dropped.

And into that space rushed the same toxic supply. 💊💀

Vanished described where they work:

Between paperwork and people.
Between court orders and real life.
Between “they’re engaged with services” and “no one has actually seen them.”

That sentence alone explains why families reach out. 💔

Because people don’t just disappear.
They slip into systems that stop seeing them.

Now decriminalization is reversed — but the poisoned supply remains. Housing is still scarce. Treatment is still limited. And people are still being routed through clinics, conditions, and compliance instead of stability.

And let’s say it clearly:

WE NEED HOUSING.
🏠🏠🏠
Not someday. Not later. Not in reports.
We need it now.

No policy works without housing.
No recovery works without housing.
No dignity exists without housing.

WE NEED HOUSING.

Vanished doesn’t argue politics.
They argue presence. 🤍

They keep looking when others stop.
They keep asking when files are closed.
They remind families they are not alone.

They remind us that harm reduction didn’t fail — it was never fully built.

You can’t remove law without building health.
You can’t build health without funding it.
And you can’t abandon people in the middle and expect peace.

So on this quiet Sunday morning ☕🌿
instead of louder arguments…
let’s ask for better systems.
Let’s ask for real housing.
Let’s ask for care that lasts longer than headlines.
Let’s support the people who refuse to stop searching. 🔍💙

Because people are not statistics.
They are not disposable.
They are not invisible.

They are still here.
And they are still worth finding. ✨

💙 Thank you, Vanished Project, for standing between the cracks.