Pubdate: Fri, 30 Dec 2016
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Page: A11

DRUG VICTIMS ARE REAL PEOPLE

The fentanyl crisis and its death toll did not arrive suddenly, but it has
taken a painfully long time for our response to catch up to the
seriousness of the threat. In Wednesday's Times Colonist, Victoria police
Staff Sgt. Conor King wrote about a cluster of overdoses in the city
caused by a potent type of heroin in the spring of 2013. It turned out to
be laced with fentanyl.

He joined police officers from across North America to talk about the
obvious dangers of this lethal new drug. Experts inside and outside law
enforcement predicted that it was going to mushroom - and they were right.

By December 2015, King wrote, people in B.C. were dying every day of
overdoses.

Bruce Wallace, a University of Victoria researcher, seeing the same
figures, warned in an opinion piece for the Times Colonist that month that
public-health messages wouldn't be enough to stem the rapidly growing
crisis. He called for "comprehensive harm-reduction services throughout
Greater Victoria, including supervised-consumption services."

The toll mounted. In the past 31⁄2 years, fentanyl has killed more
than 1,000 people in B.C.

In April, Provincial Health Officer Perry Kendall declared a health
emergency. The province, Island Health, the federal government and many
other agencies have moved in the past six months to try to stop the
deaths, making the antidote naloxone more widely available, but first
responders are becoming overwhelmed by the number of overdoses.

In November, the average now is up to four overdose deaths a day. The
machinery of government has not been able to keep up with the increase.
The previous federal government's strong opposition to
supervised-consumption sites certainly made it harder to take action.

The most basic life-saving measures for Victoria - supervised
drug-consumption sites - are still moving through the federal application
process, even though the new federal government has said it is willing to
approve them.

In desperation, Island Health and the province have given emergency
approval for overdose-prevention sites, similar to supervised-consumption
sites but without the added programs and health services seen at
facilities such as InSite in Vancouver.

If the killer were a virus instead of an illegal drug, would it have taken
almost four years to bring in major changes to save lives? It seems
unlikely. Those faceless drug users had too few people going to bat for
them.

In Tuesday's newspaper, we wrote about Beth Klimek, 17, who died of a
suspected drug overdose four days before Christmas. Some people have asked
why we would print a story about her death.

It's because she was a real human being, like all the others who have died
in this epidemic. She had a name and a face and a life and people who
loved her. She was one of those 1,000, but she was not a number. Her story
helped put a human face on the epidemic. Their loved ones know the faces,
and so do the outreach workers and first responders who see many of them.
The rest of us, from the people in the street to the people at the cabinet
table, are sometimes too far away from the reality.

It is too late for Beth Klimek and 1,000 more. There are many others,
though, who can be saved.
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