Vancouver tech co-op offers alternative to harm reduction services for drug users

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Some people with addictions don’t ask for help because they fear losing their job, children, or home. That’s what we’re hearing from advocate, who say that’s especially true within marginalized communities and among Indigenous people.

Oona Krieg is trying to connect people with tech-based tools to prevent overdose deaths. She is the COO of Brave, a Vancouver-based tech co-op providing tools to detect overdoses and trigger emergency response. Users can program the app to alert a trusted person, rather than 911, if they fear for their well-being.

“There are so many communities that are not served by emergency services … Emergency response isn’t the perfect template that we would think it is,” she said.

Brave’s website says its technology “connects people with community supporters when they’re alone and at risk of overdose. Anonymous and private, these tools can keep you safe(r) from overdose, wherever you are, whenever you need it.”

Krieg notes there have been accusations that the VPD over-polices supervised consumption sites (SCS), taking small amounts of street drugs off of people heading into one of the harm reduction locations.

She says that further criminalizes and isolates users in the Downtown Eastside and forces them to seek out more dangerous drugs.

But she says most people who use drugs don’t fit the image that many have been trained by stigma and misinformation to expect. Many are young mothers or young men suffering from pain or trauma.

“How many parents are using alone in their house? Using alone in the bathroom and dying because they’re so isolated and because they would never have gone to an SCS in the first place?” she wondered.

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Krieg, who is a former drug user herself, says many groups, including LGBTQ2S+ aren’t at safe supervised consumption sites to begin with.

“They are experiencing more violence or it’s just not accessible there. They’re asked what gender they are when they sign up,” she said.

Brave’s technology is also being employed in social housing. Krieg says COVID-related policies may have driven up overdose deaths.

“How many different organizations and services had to shut their doors to increase COVID protocols? One of the things that we saw in supportive housing in Vancouver, which I’m sure is is similar across the board, is there’s no-visitor policy. So what the community was doing to keep themselves safe — having buddies, sharing drugs, sharing time — there was none of that. So no one is noticing when someone’s overdose because they’re forced even further into isolation and marginalization from their drug use,” she said.