The Other Side of Dundee
Miri de Villers
I went to Dundee for two weeks to explore the drug death crisis from the perspective of the grassroots organisations and peer workers on the ground fighting for the lives of Dundonians. The two organisations I focused on, The Parish Nurses and Just Bee, were a stone’s throw away from each other in Dundee’s city centre, figuratively and literally the heart of the city. The final piece included these grassroots voices as well as authoritative voices who could explain further why Dundee has been named as the 'Drug Death Capital of Europe' from the structural and political failings to the statistics and everyday struggles of the people impacted the most. I wanted to write a story that was a direct response to the mainstream narratives I was reading in the news, ones that were ‘othering’ people who use drugs and not telling the full picture of what was going on.
