B.C. advocates press for more action as they mourn lives lost to toxic drugs
Posted February 10, 2022 8:11 am.
Last Updated February 10, 2022 9:57 am.
Illicit toxic drugs have left death in their wake across B.C. and those on the frontlines of the crisis are demanding more action as they mourn more friends, family, and fellow community members.
On Wednesday, the province confirmed what many already knew, that the crisis has claimed more lives in a single year than ever before.
The BC Coroners Service said 2,224 people died in 2021, up 26 per cent from the previous year. This makes 2021 the deadliest year for overdose deaths on record.
Read More: B.C. sets another grim record for illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2021
Following the latest grim report, many people gathered in the Downtown Eastside at the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) building, to share their frustrations with the government.
Despite a government prescribed safe supply program, and millions invested in recovery beds – drug poisoning deaths reached another record high in B.C. in 2021. @KierJunos reports on the demands drug user advocates are calling for yet again. https://t.co/w9WVNYONPp #BCPoli pic.twitter.com/5zENBHwWV3
— CityNews Vancouver (@CityNewsVAN) February 10, 2022
“If they are preventable deaths, then prevent them! Prevent them! Quit talking to me and show me some action so I don’t have to go to another funeral,” one speaker said Wednesday.
B.C. does have a safe supply program and is spending millions on addictions programs and recovery, but many say there won’t be any real results until the laws are changed.
Drug User Liberation Front co-founder Eris Nyx says Canada has abandoned drug users.
“That the government dismantles the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, grants DULF, the Drug User Liberation Front, our request for a section 56 exemption to be able to run compassion clubs that distribute cocaine, heroine, and methamphetamine in tested, clean, and predictable compounds,” Nyx said.
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The province is also seeing the Indigenous community heavily affected by this crisis.
“Today, B.C. First Nation people are dying at a rate more than five times that of non-First Nation people,” Dr. Nel Wieman with the First Nations Health Authority said Wednesday.
She urges more investment in Indigenous-specific, culturally safe harm-reduction, treatment, and recovery services.
For one member of the Indigenous community, he believes it’s a systemic problem.
“Trauma is for generations but alcohol and drugs seem to be their coping mechanism. So many traumas, like residential schools, abuse, violence, sexual abuse, poverty, colonialism,” Six Nations Mohawk and VANDU VP Kevin Yake said.
Rallies are organized for Thursday by members of the Moms Stop the Harm group. (Facebook/momsstoptheharm)
The “Moms Stop the Harm” advocacy group is holding rallies Thursday in front of several MLA offices across the province, including those in Vancouver and Chilliwack, to echo calls for a safe supply.
Those attending are urged to bring a mask and signs in order to “shout enough is enough.”
