See Japan Page / See New Zealand Page
Wayne Douglas is the Founder and Organiser responsible for establishing World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day (W-BAD).
He is from Auckland, New Zealand. While living in Japan, he was inappropriately prescribed 3 different BZs and an antidepressant without informed consent, off the back of an incorrect diagnosis (he initially had an ear problem). This led to long-term suffering and damage.
He then set out for recognition and compensation, progressing through the entire Japanese judicial system all the way to The Supreme Court of Japan. Each of the courts refused to recognise his case, despite the overwhelming evidence and the backing of Prof. Heather Ashton. Soon after the Tokyo High Court verdict was delivered, he was displaced by the 3-11 mega-quake and Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Despite the added difficulties, instead of giving in and returning to New Zealand, he began campaigning for the cause by launching his website, assisting with the translation of The Ashton Manual in Japanese, representing victims / sufferers worldwide at the International Society of Addiction Medicine World Congress in Yokohama, participating in a doctor’s petition to the Japanese government, and organised World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day, which had its inaugural event on July 11, 2016.
To learn more about Wayne, you can visit his personal website where personal contributions can be made to support his efforts.
He is also writing a book Under the Rising Sun. Contributing to this book was the very last work carried out by Dr. C. Heather Ashton during her long, distinguished career.
Wayne’s contributions to the cause
Wayne’s publicity
Wayne’s interviews with Dr. Peter Breggin
Wayne’s YouTube Channel
Contact
Message from Wayne
During my effort to have W-BAD resurrected in 2021, the degree to which I have contributed to the platform over the years was brought into question. To help clarify any possible concerns, please consider the following (mainly taken from The W-BAD Chronicle).
Commitment to W-BAD
Although it would be impossible to provide an exacting detailed account of what I have actually contributed, I have been heavily involved in every aspect of W-BAD from the outset, singlehandedly building the platform (see original webpage) and creating the initial content from the ground up, developing materials (including pamphlets in multiple languages and related content, video creation etc.), organisational work, assisting with admin, coordinating both global and regional efforts (including Japan – see Japan page and Japan blog) in two languages – second to none), promotional work (including mass media outreach), global platform development efforts, participation and leading by example, as well as my latest effort to have the W-BAD platform revived for the people (see relaunch), which now totals the equivalent of around three years fulltime employment during the six years since I first began working on the platform in November 2015 through to December 2021 and counting.
It must be said that it wasn’t from the stability of a home of my own from which I have tirelessly worked on establishing the W-BAD platform. Rather, it was from a state housing unit in Japan, where I had been residing as an evacuee from the Fukushima disaster, initially living only off food rations donated by local farmers, working just two days a week and barely surviving with constant threats to shut off utilities, spending three of my six years in the alpine region without using any heating and waking in the mornings with blood in my mouth and nose as well as being borderline homeless many times over, without any funding and having to shoulder costs one way or another (see Sustainability on donation page).
The above was preceded by my own debilitating experience of prescribed benzodiazepine drug damages and the crippling injustice of the Japanese courts, combined with ongoing hardship including the fact I have never had any amount of savings or assets at any point in my entire life – everything I have contributed to the cause has been while scraping by on a razor’s edge, experiencing countless falls along the way – a predicament that continues to this very day, while related circumstances have kept me away from my home country – plagued by those thoughts on a daily basis.
There was an additional claim suggesting selfishness. Please consider the following (mainly taken from The W-BAD Chronicle).
- Building W-BAD from the ground up during a most difficult time in my life while confronted by vulnerability and life-altering circumstances.
- After losing my court case with only a small amount of money in my wallet, while homeless and basically without food, although being a Fukushima disaster victim myself, I donated 5,000 yen to the Fukushima relief fund without knowing how I was going to hold up over the following days, weeks or months.
- Using the only substantial donation ever received of 300,000 yen ($3,000) through my Benzo Case Japan website to fund my presentation at the World Congress in Yokohama to help raise more global awareness / doing more campaigning while living in evacuee housing, shortly after surviving only on food rations.
- Giving a homeless lady 5,000 yen in Saitama, while I was suffering from benzodiazepines at a time when my own wellbeing was heavily compromised.
- Borrowing 100,000 yen ($1,000) from a friend to fund the W-BAD Info Drop at the Japan government buildings in December 2019, again while borderline homeless, at a time when I was absolutely broken and desperate, as I continued contributing to the cause even during my darkest hours.
- While back in New Zealand and addressing this claim about selfishness, I had only just taken a Japanese guy (complete stranger) to the doctors in Auckland and interpreted for him at a time when my life was falling apart.
- Putting in extraordinary efforts under extraordinary circumstances to revive W-BAD, again, while confronted by vulnerability and life-altering circumstances.
On top of campaigning, I’ll pretty much do anything for anyone on a daily basis without a second thought (that’s the type of person I am). Having said that, there is now a desperate need to focus more on rescuing myself as life difficulties close in more than ever before.
Wayne Douglas is the Founder and Organiser responsible for establishing World Benzodiazepine Awareness Day (W-BAD).