Overdose crisis unites diverse group – Times Colonist
August 29, 2017
For the past several months, a group of frontline workers, illicit-drug users and parents have met to discuss how they can better inform the public on the one thing that unites them: The overdose crisis.
“It’s such a diverse mix of people, but we’ve all been affected,” said Leslie McBain, a founding member of Moms Stop the Harm.
She lost her only son, Jordan Miller, to an opioid overdose in 2014. She has helped support other parents and has become a respected advocate at all levels of government.
Almost 2,000 people have died from illicit-drug deaths in B.C. since 2016, with more than 283 of those deaths on Vancouver Island. Despite an emergency health crisis being called, a prolific dispersal of the opioid antidote naloxone and dozens of overdose-prevention sites being opened, the crisis is getting worse, according to monthly statistics from the coroners service.
