The numbers are disturbing. According to the B.C. Coroners Service, 780 British Columbians lost their lives in drug overdoses in the first six months of this year, 46 of those in Kelowna.
Those personally affected, like Helen Jennens, who lost both of her sons to overdoses, say changes are badly needed to tackle the crisis.
“Decriminalization of illicit drugs,” Jennens said. “We have to get the black market out of there.”
Jennens is part of the ‘Moms Stop the Harm’ group which organized the first of its kind International Overdose Awarenes Day event in Kelowna Thursday.
Jennens lost not one, but two of her sons to overdoses.
“I just needed to do something to give my boys a voice that was not heard when they were alive,” Jennens said. “And then I became passionate and realized it wasn’t just my boys dying, it’s anyone’s child, this can happen to anyone’s child.”
Stephanie Hopkins lost her boyfriend Dustin to an overdose in November 2016.
She said the 38-year old man turned to drugs to cope with emotional pain.
She believes this drug fight needs to start with prevention.
“Even as early as school aged,” Hopkins said. “Teaching kids to cope with their emotions and how to deal with things, reducing stress in families.”
Physicians working at Kelowna General Hospital’s emergency department say they treat overdoses on a daily basis.
“In the last 18 months, I have seen more overdoses than I have seen in the previous 20 years here,” Dr. Jeff Eppler said.
Dr. Eppler said there needs to be adequate mental health resources so that people don’t medicate their own mental health problems.
“Whether it’s depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, whatever mental health disorder or severe childhood trauma or abuse, we need to help those people in those ways as well,” Dr. Eppler said.
Dr. Eppler is in full support of more drug use reduction initiatives such as the take home naloxone program and government-sanctioned drug injection sites.
“A lot of people are not comfortable with these things. They think we are somehow enabling drug use. There is no question the science is unassailable, safe consumption sites, they reduce overdose deaths.” Dr. Eppler said. “It saves lives so it is a no-brainer.”
On Wednesday, the Interior Health Authority (IHA) put out an overdose alert after a bad stretch of overdose deaths in the central Okanagan. IHA said that between Aug.17 and 26, there were seven suspected overdose deaths in the Kelowna area, that’s seven deaths in just nine days.
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