Advocates give out drugs, push for better safe supply after B.C. breaks overdose record

In a moment of silence and remembrance, a few dozen people shouted out the names of friends and loved ones who died last year due to a drug overdose.

As they honoured those they have lost, drug user advocates also took the opportunity to hand out 0.1-gram doses of cocaine, heroin or methamphetamine, providing a glimpse of what a so-called compassion club would look like.

"We know that the problem is not substance use itself or addiction. The problem is that we have a poisoned drug supply where people don't know what they're using," said Jeremy Kalicum with Drug User Liberation Front.

DULF, along with the BC Association of People on Opiate Maintenance, used donations to purchase roughly $1,000 worth of drugs over the dark web, then tested them and handed them out at the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users in the Downtown Eastside.

"The numbers tell a real story that people aren't accessing the safe supply, and the coroner is also seeing … that people who are accessing it are dying," Kalicum said.

On Wednesday, the BC Coroners Service released a new report revealing 2,224 people died of overdoses across the province in 2021, setting a grim new record. The death toll also represents a staggering 26 per cent increase from the year before. (hyperlink)

"I'm shocked, enraged and I'm grieving about this," said Leslie McBain, co-founder of Moms Stop the Harm. "I ask the question to myself, 'Why would it be any better?' Because nothing has changed except for the worse."

McBain and her organization are also calling for better access to a safe drug supply that has no barriers and no stigma.

"The thing is, if people are dead, they are not going to recovery beds; they're not going to access the services the government is going to provide," she said.

Kalicum said the province needs to improve the current prescriber model, in which a doctor or nurse gives a prescription to a user.

"The medical system isn't an appropriate place for safe supply, because you'll see supply shouldn't be medicalized. It's like medicalizing alcohol use; going to your doctor and asking for a six pack of beer," he said.

Dr. Ramneek Dosanjh, president of Doctors of B.C., agreed that it is a challenge

"As a doctor, it isn't an easy decision to prescribe a narcotic. There are ramifications for the patient and the prescriber," she said.

Dosanjh admits more needs to be done but said it will require changes from everyone.

"We change our attitudes as a public and bring this into awareness, people are in pain and addiction is pain and we need to address this in a multi-faceted pronged approach," she said.

Moms Stop the Harm will be holding rallies in Vancouver and Victoria to amplify their cause.