If folks in Squamish were drinking alcohol laced with something that killed them, no one would say they “overdosed.”
We would say they were poisoned.
Substance use advocates have rightly called out media for using the term “overdose,” during the current opioid crisis rather than saying “toxic drug poisonings.”
We get it and are changing our language as much as we can.
Like the rest of B.C., Squamish is currently in the midst of a toxic drug supply crisis.
Why the drug supply is currently toxic is complex. One reason is that drug prohibitions in Canada have meant “efforts to interrupt and suppress the illicit drug supply, produce economic and logistical pressures favouring ever-more compact substitutes,” states the study Today’s fentanyl crisis: Prohibition’s Iron Law, revisited.
The border closures have made the supply deadlier.
The drugs that people with substance use disorder access to avoid going into brutal withdrawal are too often poisoning them, in other words.
According to the BC Coroners Service, last year was the deadliest year on record for illicit drug deaths, with 1,716 dying.
In January, 165 people died.
The coroner’s report cited “extreme” concentrations of fentanyl, etizolam — a benzodiazepine — and carfentanil.
Ultimately, a safe and regulated drug supply is needed, but in the meantime, let’s be accurate about how we speak about the crisis.
Not doing so increases stigma.
“I think it is a huge misnomer that is now just become part of the vernacular and how everything is spoken about,” said Jenna Becker the co-ordinator of the Sea to Sky Community Action Team. “It is a toxic drug supply. That is what is killing people.... Folks aren’t taking way too much, not knowing. People are taking drugs and thinking it is something and the concentration is much different. Or they think they are taking heroin or fentanyl and there is a bunch of benzos in it; or, thinking they are taking cocaine and there is fentanyl in it,” she said.
“This is sort of where we are at. I think it could change some of the stigma. Overdose does make it sound like it is on that person — they are over-dosing.”
Here’s the thing, though, the health authority and provincial government officials themselves continue to call it an overdose crisis.
The name of the new (much needed and welcomed) facility is Overdose Prevention Site.
Thus, no matter how much media evolves, the word overdose ends up in our stories, either in the names of facilities or out of officials’ mouths.
Leslie McBain, the co-founder of Moms Stop the Harm — a group of grieving mothers, including some from Squamish — told The Chief that other language needs to change, too.
*Instead of addict say “person with substance use disorder.”
*Instead of “drug abuse,” say, “drug use.”
*Instead of “clean” (opposite is dirty), say a person is “drug-free” or the person is “in recovery.”
Language changes perception, so let’s use it wisely.
