Another International Overdose Awareness Day has passed and with it comes the reminder that behind the staggering numbers of deaths are faces and names that mean everything to their friends and families.
It’s easy to become numb to the statistics when each month a report reveals the latest death toll from a toxic and unregulated drug supply.
The most recent data (July) found 198 deaths across B.C. and we are on pace for a record high of more than 2,400.
Each of those numbers leaves behind grieving parents, relatives and friends.
We have come to accept these unnecessary deaths but if there were suddenly an additional 100 or 200 people dying monthly of fires or plane crashes, there would be an outcry. People would demand change.
That’s not to say people don’t care, and there are absolutely people and organizations working hard to reduce these unnecessary deaths.
But I think the term “overdose” is obscuring the problem and creating stigma — casually tossing the blame at feet of the people who have died. They took too much, it’s their fault.
People are dying from drug toxicity — they didn’t consume too much of a substance, they consumed a substance contaminated with something their body does not have a tolerance for.
I think before you can solve a problem, you need to at least need to acknowledge what is happening.
READ MORE: Loved ones remembered in Parksville on Overdose Awareness Day
Concerned residents gathered in the Parksville Community Centre on Mills Street on Aug. 31 to share experiences and information from Island Health, Oceanside Community Action Team (OCAT) and Moms Stop the Harm, among others. The event emphasized we are dealing with a toxic drug crisis, not an overdose crisis and I learned a lot from my attendance.
Jane McCormick shared the tragic loss of her son Jeffrey, who died at 35 years old in 2021 and left behind two children.
According to the initial coroners report, he died from a high level of fentanyl, with benzodiazepines mixed in.
He completed treatment, and was building a life that included returning to a career with a powerline company. Jeff was concerned about drug testing on the job site, so he went off his Suboxone opioid agonist therapy.
Not long after he returned home after his three week shift in Thunder Bay, Jeff died from toxicity of an illicit substance he inhaled. Jeff used fentanyl and knew how much to take, if it wasn’t tainted with other substances.
Just about everyone you will talk to has a connection to someone who has died due to the toxic drug crisis.
A very good friend of mine, back home in Saskatchewan, would still be alive if it was not for this crisis, which affects communities across the country. His funeral was one of the hardest days of my life and I will always remember the pain on the faces of his mother, father and sister.
This crisis affects people who are housed and who are unhoused. It affects men and women, but predominately (77 per cent) it is men who are dying. Eighty per cent of the deaths happened inside, including 47 per cent in private residences and 33 per cent in other residences such as public and supportive housing, shelters and hotels, according to BC Coroners Service.
B.C. declared the issue a public health crisis back in 2016 and yet it only seems to get worse. How does something receive so much government attention and just continue to get worse? Where are the toxic drugs coming from?
I don’t have the answers and I don’t have a solution. But I know you can’t fix a problem if you haven’t identified it correctly.
It’s not an overdose crisis, it’s a toxic drug crisis. It’s a crisis of trauma and despair.
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PQB News reporter Kevin Forsyth can be reached at 250-905-0028 or via email at kevin.forsyth@pqbnews.com.