qathet region residents are being invited to join Moms Stop the Harm, SUSTAIN and the Powell River Community Action Team (PRCAT) for a peaceful march on International International Overdose Awareness Day.
The march will start at 5:30 pm on August 31, beginning at city hall in Powell River and continuing along Marine Avenue to Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons’ office for a demonstration.
The event will end at Willingdon Beach (upper parking lot, below the Alberni Street intersection) for a candlelight vigil and memorial, according to a media release.
The Moms Stop the Harm Purple Ribbon Campaign to remember those lost close to home is currently up along Marine Avenue. Residents are invited to visit this live memorial of people lost to accidental overdose.
“International Overdose Awareness Day is the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose,” the release stated. “This is a time to remember without stigma those who have died, and acknowledge the grief of the family and friends left behind, and the communities affected.
“The campaign is meant to be a time for remembrance and also a time for action. With the international spike in overdose injury and overdose deaths attributed to the toxic and illicit drug supply, the message of this event must be more prioritized than ever before.”
In BC, the ongoing overdose crisis marked its fifth year since the public health emergency was announced in April of 2016.
The crisis has claimed more than 7,596 lives in the unceded territory of the province, according to the release, and illicit drugs have been the leading major cause of unnatural deaths in BC since surpassing suicide in 2015.
“There is no room for stigma in a matter of human rights and right to life,” stated PRCAT coordinator Kathryn Colby, who has been working alongside the community on these issues for nearly three years. “This emergency becomes more dire every day that the province doesn’t take action. We are losing fathers, mothers and youth as young as 12 in this province as even recreational use becomes more risky.
“We have seen COVID-19 response and safety protocols be rolled out quickly and effectively, and we have to wonder why, even with overwhelming fatalities, our health emergency isn’t on the docket for the same level of action.”
According to the release, BC has reported 1,761 COVID-19-related deaths from March 2020 to May 2021, while illicit overdoses accounted for 2,423 deaths. Vancouver Coastal Health reports 45.7 per 100,000 people for the illicit drug toxicity death rate for the first six months of 2021.
“By local health area, the highest rate was in Powell River of the qathet region,” the release stated. “This devastating increase in the death rate again follows an upward trend of drug overdose deaths in the region. The rates for 2020 and 2016 respectively were 39.3 and 23.3.”
The urgent requirement of the protection of people who use drugs is national, provincial and local policy, which are created following the principles of harm reduction, an evidence-based health response created and informed by people with lived experience and peers, according to the release.
“Harm reduction focuses on care and capacity building and includes cost reducing and lifesaving policies like housing, evidence-based treatments and drug decriminalization. Further action such as contacting politicians and ending stigma in your sphere of influence is strongly encouraged and supported by all 68 members of the Powell River Community Action Team.”
For more information, contact Colby at 604.223.4430 or coordinator@liftcommunityservices.org; Darlana Treloar, MSTH, at 604.483.9059 or darlana@liftcommunityservices.org; or Ashley Van Zwietering, SUSTAIN, at 604.414.4920 or ashley@liftcommunityservices.org.
