With city suffering dozens of deaths every year from toxic drugs, coalition combats demonization of users, calls for easier access to detox
With the death toll from toxic drugs in Burnaby alone rising to more than 420 since 2012, one coalition of local non-profits has boots on the ground to save lives.
Hedy Wolff, BCAT’s peer co-ordinator, leads the team of peers in training, from first aid to conflict resolution and more, providing harm reduction, safe supplies and education resources. The group is lively and collaborative, creating art projects and sharing food and conversation. “One of the ways we’re trying to normalize is people being able to talk about it, because it starts there,” she added.“It becomes a ‘dirty’ issue, or ‘morally wrong,’ so people don’t want to say, ‘Hey, I need some help.’”
“I think we recognize that the gap for us in Burnaby, specifically, is that we don’t have a place to detox that’s accessible,” Gill said.If people have the means, they might be able to access private services, but otherwise, people have to spend time on the phone and wade through waiting lists. “It’s going to take us time, but we need people to start talking about it. We need people to start having conversations about use, we need to bring it to the forefront, we need to be talking to our children about it, our neighbours about it. Create spaces where individuals who are using are not doing it in isolation.”
2021 marked the highest total for Burnaby in a decade when the city recorded 81 deaths. The second-highest year was 2020, when 59 lives were lost.
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