Kira is currently pursuing her PhD research as a Vanier Scholar at the Université de Montréal, examining the relationships between cannabis use and mental health in sexually and gender diverse youth. Kira has chaired the national board of the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) since 2018 and is involved locally in Montréal with both CSSDP and VoxCann, a bilingual cannabis education initiative for youth, which she co-founded in 2018. She is also a strategic advisor for the national Cannabis & Psychosis project of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada.

Erika (they/them) is a recent graduate from the Master of Social Work program at Ryerson University. During their graduate studies, Erika previously worked with the Ryerson CSSDP as the Vice President of Operations. Erika is particularly interested in bridging the gap between youth justice policy and decriminalization/legalization.

Kiah graduated from Concordia University in Religion, Culture and Political Science. She is currently working at Cannabis and Psychosis, an organization devoted to exploring the link between cannabis usage and mental illnesses.

Rhiannon is a graduate of Interactive Digital Media at University of Toronto. She currently works as a youth harm reduction worker in Toronto’s nightlife community. Her interests include drug education, harm reduction at parties and festivals, and the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, MDMA, and ketamine.

Heath is a drug policy reform and harm reduction activist currently based in Ottawa. Some of her greatest passions are improving drug education, reducing the stigma of drug use and mental illness, as well as advocating for an end to the war on drugs.

Taylor is a PhD student in the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program at UBC, and a research coordinator at the BC Centre on Substance Use. Her research examines the intersection of housing policy, drug policy, and harm reduction, specifically as it relates to the ongoing overdose crisis.

Matthew Bonn is the program coordinator of the Canadian Association of People
Who Use Drugs, national board member with the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy and is a knowledge translator for the Dr. Peters Centre. Matt was one of the cofounders of HaliFIX Overdose
Prevention Society which implemented Atlantic Canada’s first Overdose Prevention Site. Matt is also a Canadian Editorial Consultant with Filter – Magazine, a non-profit media outlet based out of New York.
He is also a freelance writer with By Lines in Filter-Magazine, CATIE, The Coast and The Conversation. Matt has a business marketing diploma and he is a 3rd year student for Business Commerce at St.
Mary’s University (pronouns he/him).

Alex (M.Sc), is the International Liaison for CSSDP, focusing their work connecting CSSDP to the international youth and student drug reform movements. As part of their work for CSSDP, they support Paradigma, the international youth/student network as its project manager, with the goal of supporting change and solidarity in youth drug policy across the world. They are also the Peer Research Coordinator for one of the BCCSU’s qualitative research teams. Their research interests are in drug technologies, and combining insights from Science & Technology Studies, anthropology and sociology of science with how people who use drugs engage in the world. Their masters research work, at the University of Amsterdam Research Masters in Social Sciences, focused on how drug checking knowledge is constructed and learned at music festivals in British Columbia and an Overdose Prevention Site in Vancouver.