my friend Rob he's a firefighter and he
worked hard at protecting our loved ones
for many years one day there was a
terrible accident he fell out of a
window and he broke his back and after
multiple surgeries he was prescribed
pain medications legal opioids that you
would know as oxycontin or morphine
months later when he was told by his
physician that he should no longer use
them for his pain it was too late his
body was physically dependent and he had
become accidentally addicted and with no
program in place that would work for him
he turned to the only place he could the
street where the drugs were unregulated
and contaminated and within six months
he lost his family he was jobless
homeless and suffered multiple overdoses
stories like this happen a lot more
often than people would think they can
start as a workplace injury car accident
pain disorder or trauma do you know that
roughly 11 people will die today in
Canada due to opioid use that's over 300
a month or nearly the equivalent to the
to 737 max 8 planes crashing every
single month and how many crashes did it
take until they grounded that whole
fleet worldwide to
so why hasn't this overdose crisis
garnered the same action and attention
when more people are dying let me ask
you this what were your first thoughts
when I said overdose crisis usually when
we hear words like opioid addict or
overdose deaths our minds gravitate to
the drug user who's made visible to us
through their struggles with poverty
homelessness and mental health it's the
people we see presented through the
media on TV or in the newspapers the
ones squatting in our communities
wearing down our first responders and
resources isn't it these stories and
images that create the villain out of
substance users and ultimately they
paint the picture of who we believe the
user possibly is it's not the whole
story
two hundred thousand Canadians
experience homelessness at some point in
any given year but six million people
will develop a substance use disorder at
some point in their lifetime
that means there are millions of people
suffering in addiction who don't fit the
profile of the homeless user that's a
tremendous amount of isolation and
suffering happening behind closed doors
to people of all ages all backgrounds
and all walks of lives would you also be
surprised to learn that the vast
majority of drug overdose deaths that
occur in British Columbia happen in a
private residence that could be a house
just like yours blue-collar people with
careers your father's mother's your sons
and daughters your friends and community
leaders so initially who we pictured to
be the face of substance users wasn't
correct
I'm sure some of you might be asking
yourselves right now well who is this
guy
we were right on one thing my name's guy
and I'm the guy that battled the drug
addiction that lasted 33 years and over
two decades of it was spent in the
downtown east side of Vancouver where I
was brought back to life multiple times
it would be rare for someone today to
survive an addiction as long as I did
it's just a different time and people
are dying at an alarming rate
after years of recovering I now work as
the pure clinical advisor for the
overdose emergency response center the
BC Center of substance use and Vancouver
Coastal Health Regional addiction
program my job is to advise on the
overdose crisis and not just within our
province I've also gone across the
country who knew that my lived
experience in addiction would turn into
the equivalency of a master's degree and
key resume skill
I'm almost positive there's an easier
way to get a master's degree I wouldn't
recommend the route that I went it's
challenging I also go into high schools
and universities and educate your
children and grandchildren on substance
use I also let them know the Good
Samaritan law so that they can call 911
intervention for a friend who's
overdosing without fear of being
arrested I listen and they tell me that
they do know that fentanyl is and now
many different drugs and that it can
kill but they still use drugs for either
enjoyment or to fit in or a self
medicate from their anxiety depression
pain i watch tears fall as they share
with me of a parent or sibling who's
died of a drug overdose or struggling in
active addiction what has changed over
the last five years are the drugs
today's drugs are so deadly because
organized crime groups alter them for
huge financial returns they can take
$100,000 worth of fentanyl and other
drugs and turn it into a multi-million
dollar profit the revenue staggering and
the drugs are like Russian Roulette for
anyone that uses them this is impacting
our communities with gun violence
housing unaffordability drug addiction
overdose is having a tremendous impact
on our health care and legal systems and
every single taxpayer but most
importantly these drugs are stealing our
family and our friends
this is a complex tissue requiring
multiple options look there will always
be organized crime and there will always
be people using substances however we
need to educate our youth earlier and we
need to apply safer alternatives to
reduce the harms for people who are at
risk if you look at smoking once the
risks of smoking cigarettes were widely
known creative solutions were offered to
smoking one option was the nicotine
patch which eliminates the toxic
chemicals caused by cigarettes but while
still giving smokers
addictive substance nicotine this patch
is a safer alternative now for a person
who has a dependency to opioids one
solution could be to offer opioids
through a prescription based program the
missing component in harm reduction
strategies is safer supply programs but
guy you ask aren't you telling us that
opioids are the problem I am when
they're bought off the street in this
program people would receive a medical
evaluation staff by health care workers
and peers and then have access to safe
opioids people would know what they are
receiving and be empowered to use safely
more safely than resorting to the
contaminated tainted drug market that
they're forced to go to I often say to
myself when I hear that coroner's report
we're too late people don't recover when
they're not alive safer supply programs
could be so much more they could be that
important first step in identifying an
addiction or a substance use disorder it
could actually be the starting point in
someone's recovering journey its
wraparound services to healthcare and
other treatment options make it a vital
asset for anyone that uses the facility
this program has the potential to save
lives reduce criminal behavior save
taxpayers money but change the narrative
of this deadly epidemic Switzerland is
often regarded as one of the most
successful and comprehensive models in
assisting substance users in the world
and it includes prescription opioids and
in some circumstances heroin mom stop
the harm is an organization of mothers
and families who have either lost a
child to a drug overdose or have a child
struggling an active addiction
I've met many of these moms then I hear
these two words consistently what if my
son or daughter had access to this safe
supply program that you talked about
what if that could have made the
difference I've been to many funerals of
good young kids who came from wonderful
families who slipped quickly into
dependency from these deadly drugs and
with no safer supply program available
that would work for them they bought
contaminated street drugs simply a
tragic reality safer supply programs can
be one solution that we can consider and
support if someone you love became
accidentally addicted like my fireman
friend Rob wouldn't you want them to
have access to this program so that they
had the chance at improving the quality
of their lives but we can also do more
on our front end with our youth what if
we had earlier conversations around
substance use with our children
for me every week is addictions
Awareness Week as a harm reduction and
recovering advocate and in the high
school assemblies where I speak I can
tell by the innocence of the kids
questions that these specific
conversations aren't always happening at
home questions like how can I help a
friend why do people start how come
people can't stop and are drug users bad
people and they're not talking about the
homeless user they're talking about a
parent family member or a friend that
they know which is the terrible
for any child to bear alone and
sometimes it's us adults if we don't
show compassion and understanding
towards people who struggle with
substance use and addiction it can
actually hinder our own children who
could be struggling or have questions
from reaching out how would you respond
or react if your child wanted to have
the conversation with you about drugs or
how do you start that conversation it's
by simply asking if they're aware of the
overdose crisis how drugs have changed
and what it really means sometimes we
think that if we have these
conversations with our children will be
promoting substance use not so by having
open honest non-judgmental conversations
with our children we're actually giving
them the tools they'll need to make good
decisions and become a compassionate
ally for others who are struggling we
want to prevent them from becoming the
next the overdose death and the next
phases of addiction in years to come we
can all do this let's be part of the
solution after all the idea of safer
supply programs and earlier
conversations are not toxic awareness
what a wonderful gift to pass on would
you pass it on please thanks for
listening
you