The opioid crisis is front and centre today, as International Overdose Awareness Day is recognized around the world, including in Powell River, where mayor Dave Formosa recently made a similar proclamation for in and around the city. But is one day enough?
While the opioid epidemic has been overshadowed by COVID-19 since March, its numbers grow increasingly alarming, with nearly six lives lost in BC to overdose per day in June of this year.
Coronavirus statistics are released daily, with reports and updates from provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and health minister Adrian Dix keeping residents of the province informed on the latest news and reiterating safety precautions that are either suggested or mandated related to coronavirus.
COVID-19 is affecting everyone, whether they have it or are just doing everything they can to avoid contracting the disease. While this is happening daily, overdoses continue, not necessarily out of sight and out of mind, but on the periphery. For those who have been directly affected, such as Powell River’s Darlana Treloar, whose son Sean died in 2016 due to fentanyl poisoning at the age of 27, one day of focus is not nearly enough. As a member of Moms Stop the Harm, a network of families impacted by substance use, Treloar has been working to reduce the stigma toward people who use substances through a series of campaigns, marches and vigils that bring awareness to a problem that exists in Powell River and throughout the province, country and world.
COVID-19 is a global problem with scientists around the world expediting processes to find a vaccine and/or treatment. People talk about it every day. People think about it every night, and well they should. People are becoming sick and dying from coronavirus every day. People are paying attention and doing whatever they can to avoid becoming a COVID-19 statistic themselves, and doing whatever it takes to keep family members safe.
Is that same focus and attention being directed at overdose awareness? Today it is, and when statistics are released, which is usually monthly, not daily. Other than that, those who have been directly touched by the opioid crisis continue to carry the burden of keeping the issue top of mind.
International Overdose Awareness Day is observed on Monday, August 31. A flag will fly at half mast at city hall. Five or six people in the province will likely succumb to an overdose the same day, and again the next.
Is one day of recognition enough? Not even close.
