Safe supply is the moral answer

BY DARLANA TREALOR | OVERDOSE PREVENTION SITE WORKER (LIFT) AND MOTHER OF A CHILD WHO DIED FROM FENTANYL POISONING

Safe supply – that is how to get out of the current crisis that involves crime, overdoses, and drug poisoning deaths, states Darlana Trealor. In 2016, Darlana lost her adult son Sean to fentanyl. He was Powell River’s third confirmed fentanyl death – the beginning of what was to become a regional hot spot for overdoses in BC.

IN BETTER TIMES: Darlana Trealor with her son Sean and daughter Courtney.

“Government has the key to this,” she said. “They’re just allowing our kids to die.”

Currently in Powell River, Darlana explained, people who are addicted to opioids can get replacement therapies prescribed to them through their doctors such as hydromorphone. They can also get on the iOAT program – injectable opioid agonist treatment; qathet was one of the first regions in BC outside of a major centre to have this treatment available. Also, as of January 31, BC is becoming the first jurisdiction in Canada to decriminalize small amounts of some drugs.

But it’s not enough, says Darlana. There are still too many hoops for people to jump through, often, too little is prescribed, and there’s still too much stigma preventing people with addictions from getting the help they need. Instead, she said, a safe supply of real drugs, not alternatives – a regulated, affordable, available supply of opioids – would cut both crime and deaths.

The public needs to understand that lots of regular folks are addicted to opioids, says Darlana. Adults often start using to help chronic pain – and doctors were widely prescribing Oxycontin until recently. This summer, BC reached a settlement in its class action lawsuit against Purdue – the manufacturer of OxyContin – for deceptive marketing practices that helped inflame the addictions crisis.

“When people are supported, crime will go down. Safe, regulated supply will save lives,” Darlana says. “The drug supply is toxic.”