April 14th will mark the 10th anniversary of the Province of B.C.’s declaration of a public health emergency due to the poisoned drug supply. We are all called upon to remember the 19,000 people who have died from the toxic drug supply over the past 10 years – and to reflect on the reality that these were preventable deaths that demand urgent, sustained action.
We know that harm reduction works to save lives, as does access to safe drugs. We know this from the evidence, the research, and from what people who use drugs tell us. And yet, despite the ongoing deaths and harms, we have seen decisions being made at a policy level that is contrary to the evidence. We have seen the ongoing politicization of this issue and the criminalization and othering of people who use drugs.
At PAN we are grateful to the member organizations and individuals who are working on the front lines of this crisis. We acknowledge that so many people have lost others that are dear to them – friends and family and colleagues. And still people continue to do this work, often in the face of few supports and even outright hostility from others in their community or at the municipal level.
The voices and leadership of people who use drugs / people with lived and living experiences must be heeded for this province to find its way out of this crisis. The BC Coalition of Organizations By/For People Who Use Drugs is one such organization – we want to amplify their call for a Moment of Silence and a Minute of Rage and share their message for us all as we approach April 14th:
TEN & COUNTING
1 is for each life we’ve lost, every one a whole story, a star in the human firmament and a wellspring of potential cut short
2 is the number of years with more than one overdose death per day before the provincial government declared a state of emergency
3 is the number of Premiers who said that they cared, but didn’t dare to challenge the bigotry and vested interests that keep this drug war going
4 is the number of dollars saved for every dollar spent on evidence-based prevention including harm reduction and prescribed alternatives
7 is for the number of times higher the death rate from overdose is for Indigenous people compared to non-Indigenous people
8 is the percent of funds from the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy that went to harm reduction
10 is for the years since the Province declared a public health emergency, and we’re still waiting for them to treat it with real urgency
11 is for the number of months that B.C. ‘tried’ decriminalization, but without putting the necessary planning and resources toward the change, before caving to right wing backlash
49 is for the number of people who were able to get a predictable and tested supply of drugs from DULF, and the number who had to go back to the unsafe street supply when Jeremy and Eris were arrested
58 is the percent of funds from the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy that went to enforcement
624 is for the millions of dollars the Province is spending to host FIFA World Cup matches while they are cutting funding for harm reduction and overdose prevention programs, peer support and housing
19000 is for the number of preventable toxic drug supply deaths in BC since this crisis began in 2014
225,000 is for the drug war survivors in this Province who keep ourselves and each other safe, in a system designed to kill us
0 is for the patience we have for these politicians who justify and lie while our loved ones die
1 is for the mass movement we are building to end this drug war