Chalk outlines in Vancouver a stark reminder this Overdose Awareness Day

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – As we mark International Overdose Awareness Day on Tuesday, a national group is taking to the streets of Vancouver and beyond to share a stark reminder of all the lives lost to the health crisis.

Members of Moms Stop The Harm say they’ll be drawing chalk outlines of bodies in public spaces across the Lower Mainland. Their goal is to draw awareness to the ongoing epidemic.

Each of the outlines will feature a name and age of a person lost to overdose.

A grandparent honours the memory of his grandson who died from a fentanyl overdose. Photo taken in North Vancouver on Aug. 28 (Courtesy: Sacha Molby)

Chalk outlines have already started to pop up in Vancouver. Over the weekend, members of the advocacy group took to the Burrard Street Bridge and outside Health Minister Adrian Dix’s constituency office to draw outlines.

Chalk outlines outside of Health Minister Adrian Dix’s office in Vancouver (Courtesy: Deb Bailey)

Photos of people who lost their lives to overdose were also tied near the outlines, according to advocates.

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In addition to chalk outlines, Moms Stop the Harm says it will “also stand with” members of the Drug User Liberation Front and Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users on Tuesday “as they distribute a safe supply of drugs to registered drug users.”

A photo taken in Langley City shows a drawing meant to bring awareness to the overdose crisis and to call for change. (Courtesy: Moms Stop the Harm)

“Implementation of safe drug programs are urgently needed to replace the toxic drugs currently killing people,” the group writes in a release.

International Overdose Awareness Day is held on Aug. 31 every year. According to those behind the movement, the day is “the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose, remember without stigma those who have died, and acknowledge the grief of family and friends left behind.”

A memorial for overdose victims was drawn to remember the thousands of lives lost to the overdose crisis (Courtesy: Moms Stop the Harm)

On Tuesday, Science World, Vancouver City Hall, the Burrard Street Bridge, Rogers Arena, and BC Place are set to light up in purple to pay tribute to the lives lost.

B.C. declared the overdose crisis a public health emergency in April of 2016.