International Overdose Awareness Day remembers those lost to crisis
By Herald on September 1, 2022.
Herald Photo by Ry Clarke
Members of AAWEAR hand out Narcan and naloxone kits, along with food and water, Wednesday in Galt Gardens.Ry Clarke – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Alberta Alliance Who Educate and Advocate Responsibly, AAWEAR, held an event in Galt Gardens Wednesday for International Overdose Awareness Day, uniting to try to bring an end to the overdose crisis and remembering those who have lost someone with support and education on the topic.
“We are here to remember, without stigma, those who have died and acknowledge the families who have gone through grief and loss. We’re calling for an end to the punitive drug laws that have cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives in the fight,” said Heidi Reinke, outreach coordinator for the Lethbridge chapter of AAWEAR. “Lives have been lost or ruined by people being convicted and incarcerated for drug related offences. Overturning these laws, and adding increased attention for people charged with drug related offences and expunging the records of people convicted of minor offences would be a step towards justice.”
The afternoon event worked towards bringing attention to harm reduction and removing the stigma about how it can help save lives.
“It’s important to bring the education to the awareness, especially in Lethbridge. There are so many people that we find don’t understand the importance of harm reduction. They believe abstinence is the only way and that is not always the case for so many folks. Getting more education out for the public here in Lethbridge is huge,” said Reinke. “There are ways to use safely if you have a safe supply. But the unfortunate circumstance is because these drugs are not regulated, they can be cut with anything, which can cause fatalities. People get what they get and the majority of most drug poisonings that we have come across have been unintentional, not intentional.”
AAWEAR handed out harm reduction supplies, teaching about Narcan and Naloxone utilization, medication that is used as an “opioid antagonist” to counter the effects of opioid overdose.
“Anyone that wants to learn will get tutorials, explaining about how it works,” said Reinke. “With the Narcan, it is a nasal spray, we find it’s the most effective way. It’s a lot less invasive to the person. Just spraying it up the nose and after 20 minutes you can do another dose if need be. By that time EMS is able to arrive. With the Naloxone kit, there are three needles, three vials, and every 20 minutes you can administer one shot to the thigh, arm, or any big muscles of the body.”
Alberta RCMP also recognized the day with a statement saying they will be launching a methamphetamine awareness campaign in collaboration with the Canadian integrated Response to Organized Crime, while educating, protecting, and informing the public about negative impacts of methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs.
The RCMP noted that in 2021 Alberta lost over 800 lives to meth-related accidental overdoses, increasing by 28 per cent since 2020.
“The past two years have been the deadliest on record. Last year, on average five people were taken from their family and community every day. It is devastating to think of how many Albertans have been plunged into grief over this time,” said Lori Sigurdson, NDP critic for Mental Health and Addictions, in a statement. “These deaths were preventable. Drug use should not be a death sentence. By denying evidence-based services, backed by science, the UCP have failed Albertans. We can encourage treatment and recovery while also preventing further deaths through well respected public health models. There is no reason the government should be contributing to suffering by refusing to expand life-saving treatment options and harm reduction pathways. This does not have to be ideological, nor political – we must only act to best serve those who are in crisis.”
Sigurdson added Alberta needs a drug poisoning response rooted towards saving lives, not passing moral judgement. She proposed an Emergency Action Plan to save lives including an urgent expansion of supervised consumption services and safe and regulated alternatives to illegal and toxic street drugs.
“We are happy for anyone in the community that comes out and supports us. We’re always looking for more folks to join our team as well, doing outreach and giving back to the community. We are a peer led organization. We all come from some sort of addiction, and are really understanding of the folks on the street,” said Reinke.
For more information on AAWEAR you can visit them at aawear.org.
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I do not have a problem with you handing out Narcan and Naloxone kits which are vital for those who were using, even though the costs are high, but have no agreement in anything else you stand for.
“… “Lives have been lost or ruined by people being convicted and incarcerated for drug related offences. Overturning these laws, and adding increased attention for people charged with drug related offences and expunging the records of people convicted of minor offences would be a step towards justice.”…”
The laws are there to protect Canadians and we have a Pardon system that can be applied for after the person has proven themselves in a few years. There have been very few arrests across Canada for simple possession of users.
“…“There are ways to use safely if you have a safe supply….”
We already provide prescription opioids which are now available in a few locations in Lethbridge. Addicts don’t like the high by ordinary presciption opioids, including morphine and fentanyl, seeking drugs that take them out of reality so they have no concept of the reality around them. That is why criminal drug manufacturers/dealers add meth and speed to opioids. To suggest a safe supply will solve this is ludicrous and there have been safe supplies in BC for almost 2 years with their prescription vending machines.
Addicts push to maximize their high, going to the edge of overdosing. That is why you often see EMS responding multiple times per day to the same patient on the streets.
“…“The past two years have been the deadliest on record. Last year, on average five people were taken from their family and community every day. It is devastating to think of how many Albertans have been plunged into grief over this time,” said Lori Sigurdson, NDP critic for Mental Health and Addictions, in a statement….”
It is sad so many across died needlessly with over 1500 last year in BC where they have pushed harm reduction for 20 years, opening the first safe injection site in North America in 2003. Over that 20 years there has always been long waiting periods for treatment while they pump billions into non-profits who enable addicts. In the Downtown Eastside, on E. Hastings in Vancouver they have several injection sites, some with back doors into the alleys which are full of addicts. They brag that they never had a fatal overdose in their sites, yet hundreds of died with 100 meters of their sites after using in them.
Many of us know after watching the experiment of harm reduction completely fail in BC and know that treatment is the answer. Sad the NDP is playing politics as people die!
“…She ( Sigurdson) proposed an Emergency Action Plan to save lives including an urgent expansion of supervised consumption services and safe and regulated alternatives to illegal and toxic street drugs….”
The NDP is going to ram another SCS through in our city if they win the next election after hearing this statement.
The citizens were recently asked in a survey if they felt Lethbridge needed another brick and mortar SCS: Over 80% stated ‘NO’ out of over 1000 and when I took stats in unversity was a good sampling.
The NDP ignored our pleas when we saw the devastation on our streets, with a massive increase of open drug use and major increases in fatal overdoses, crime and taxpayer costs after the SCS opened. The SCS was only open for 2 years and cost taxpayers over $25 million and Stacey Bourque admitting in a news release was for about 143 users who used the site multple times per day! It also cost millions to pay for increased police/fire/EMS and organizations such as Clean Sweep, D.O.T.,etc.
Imagine if that money would have gone into treatment. And, just like in BC, people died within 100 meters of the SCS, one in the parking lot after leaving the site. They enable people and attract people to use.
The government stated that 68% of addicts died where they reside so these sites have little impact, while from what we witnessed in Lethbridge encouraged more addicts.
If you open another one we will shut it down! Treatment has proven to be successful in Alberta, with a 44% reduction in fatal overdoses from last November to April, compared to the previous year. You won’t hear them admit that though.
Just another group broadcasting that harm reduction works, not acknowledging how badly it failed in BC after 20 years and the issues grew.
If it worked the fatal overdoses, the numbers of addicts, the crime and homeless numbers would have fallen over the last 20 years in BC, but instead has spread. If this was a corporation it would have been bankrupt, but it is a billion dollar industry in BC, most of which funded by your tax dollars by the feds!
Effective treatment is where our tax dollars should be going, not harm reduction groups that enable addicts to continue.
Alberta is on the right track with their increased funding for treatment beds and we are already seeing the positive results of this stance. Anyone that believes that harm reduction works needs to only look in Vancouver DTES where over $360 million is burned up for support and housing programs annually for a population under 20,000 in the greater DTES while only around 9,000 are in the DTES itself. A very small part of Vancouver used as this example and I stand by others by saying if it actually worked, there would be tangible evidence after it been enacted in 2003.
The results show it doesn’t work! The numbers prove it doesn’t work!