INTERESTING NEWS Canada’s Oldest First Nations Newspaper - Serving Nuu-chah-nulth-aht since 1974 Canadian Publications Mail Product Vol. 51 - No. 17—September 5, 2024 haas^i>sa Sales Agreement No. 40047776
Overdose toll declines, but still leading cause of death Harm reduction approach faces increasing political scrutiny as an election approaches, yet deaths drop in 2024 By Eric Plummer Ha-Shilth-Sa Editor Port Alberni, BC - Eight years into a public health emergency, fatal drug overdoses are declining, bringing encouraging news to the many people affected by British Columbia’s opioid crisis. At the current rate of over six fatalities a day, poisoning from illicit drug use continues to be the leading cause of death for B.C. residents under 60, surpassing car crashes, homicide, suicide and natural disease combined. But recent data from the B.C. Coroners Service shows some decline to the crisis’ disturbing statistics. The Coroners Service reports that 192 people fell to illicit drugs in July - a 15 per cent decrease from the same month last year. The Coroner states that “expedited toxicological testing” detected fentanyl in almost nine out of 10 of these tragedies. Up until the end of July 1,365 people in B.C. have died by overdose, but each month of 2024 has shown a decrease from the same periods in 2023. Last year was the deadliest for B.C.’s opioid crisis with 2,572 fatalities. These most recent numbers came out Friday, Aug. 30, on the eve of International Overdose Awareness Day. An hour after the statistics were released that morning Brandy Lauder, chief councillor of the Hupacasath First Nation, addressed the crisis to an audience at the Best Western Barclay Hotel in Port Alberni. “How we deal with it reflects on us as communities, as townships, countries, provinces. For the longest time, I think, Canada has been one of the failing ones,” she said. “They haven’t initialized the whole program, they only take what they think they can afford, and watch it fail.” Indigenous people have been disproportionately affected by the crisis, with a fatality rate last year that was six times that the rest of B.C., reports the First Nations Health Authority. In recent years substance use has become a foremost concern for Nuu-chahnulth families as well. “When your family member becomes addicted, you become the kind of person that has to save yourself, save the things you love, and what’s still remaining,” said Lauder, who stressed the importance of showing support to those in the grip of drug addiction - despite the difficulties of dealing with a loved one in such a situation. “We may have to back away a little bit to protect ourselves, but that does not mean we have to shut down and leave them out on the streets cold and addicted.”
Eric Plummer photo
People sing at Port Alberni’s Overdose Prevention Site on Aug. 30, at a gathering held on the day before International Overdose Awareness Day. ‘I want to get sober’ Earlier in August the FNHA emphasized the toll the drug crisis has had on overall health outcomes for First Nations people in B.C. Dr. Nel Wieman, the FNHA’s chief medical officer, said that continuing fatalities in the drug crisis are a “major driver” in the decline of First Nations’ life expectancy, which fell from 73.3 years in 2017 to 67.2 in 2021, according to an interim report by the FNHA and the Office of the Provincial Health Officer. “Because a big part of the life expectancy data is tied into deaths related to the unregulated extremely dangerous toxic drug supply in this province, we have to do something about that,” she said. “These are not throwaway people. This is not a segment of society that we shouldn’t care about or that we’re not even a part of or connected to.” “Their whole brain becomes rewired to their next fix. They can go without food, they can go without shoes, they can go without a bed to sleep, because the only thing that’s programmed in their head is their next fix,” continued Lauder. “All they’re trying to do is survive and run
Inside this issue... Homicide investigation in Ahousaht..............................Page 3 Tofino stops dumping sewage into the ocean.................Page 5 New method to monitor green crab................................Page 9 Forestry conference seeks creative ideas......................Page 11 Tla-o-qui-aht have play day for school kids.................Page 15
away from the pain that they’re experiencing every moment of the day. They need the tools in order to figure out how to heal themselves, and the only tool they have is addiction.” While Lauder and other elected representatives addressed an audience at the Barclay Hotel, further south in Port Alberni an event was held for people at the Overdose Prevention Site, a facility run by the Port Alberni Shelter Society on Third Avenue. It’s a busy place where Daniel Holland comes for support, as he awaits his chance to enter a recovery facility in two weeks. Holland has used crack for the past eight years, and the 51-year-old admits to first trying alcohol at the age of 8. “My mom and dad used to always go to Hell’s Angels parties, they gave my first beer, my first cigarette, my first line of coke,” said Holland, who grew up in Richmond and is from the We Wai Kum First Nation. “You’re always chasing the dragon.” Although he admits it’s hard being around illicit drug use at the Overdose Prevention Site, the support from staff there “levels out” his aggression. He had
spent the preceding night in jail before coming to the OPS for lunch. “I’ve got six kids and four grandkids. I try to be the best person that I can for them, but it takes over,” said Holland of his addiction. “I want to get sober.” Mounting political scrutiny Over the course of the public health emergency overdose prevention sites have been established across B.C. to mitigate the worst harms of the drug crisis. Do date, just one death has been reported at a supervised site in B.C., as these facilities serve as a fundamental example of the harm reduction approach to substance use. Harm reduction focuses on reducing the harms of addiction without requiring abstinence. It enables those who use to choose how they will manage their habits and health. But this year this approach to managing substance use has faced political scrutiny. In August the Province of Ontario announced the closure of 10 supervised drug sites, due to new rules that prohibit them from operating within 200 metres of a school or daycare. Continued on page 2.
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