A sold-out conference in Trail on Tuesday will focus on “misinformation and disinformation” surrounding BC’s toxic drug supply.
Community action teams from Trail, Nelson, Castlegar, and Grand Forks and ANKORS are jointly hosting the event, entitled A Community Conversation on Current Issues in the Toxic Drug Crisis.
“The politics around substance use are rife with rhetoric, so we want people to get some good, solid evidence-based information around what works and what does not work with respect to people who use substances,” said Trail Community Action Team chair Tammy McLean.
She said they expect a diverse group of attendees, including frontline workers who face the realities of the drug crisis daily as well as muncipal leaders and others who work for Interior Health.
The keynote speakers are author and activist Garth Mullins, who produces the podcast Crackdown and has written a book of the same name, and Corey Ranger, president of the Harm Reduction Nurses Association, who recently completed a master’s degree focusing on involuntary care.
There are also a couple of workshops and a panel discussion focusing on the four pillars of public health response to the drug crisis.
“Unfortunately we’ve been heavily focused on enforcement,” McLean said. “The vast majority of funding that comes to the response to toxic drugs ends up being in the enforcement end of things when really, addiction is a health issue and not a criminal one.”
McLean said Indigenous elders will be offering blessings. She noted that although Indigenous people form a small part of the overall population, they are overrepresented among deaths related to the drug crisis.
“So there’s lots of layers to this. We’re really looking forward to digging into this and providing people who are coming with some good information, some good time for reflection, and hopefully learning and a different response that really brings people together to work together on one of the biggest health crises in our generation.”
More than 18,000 people have died due to toxic drug use since BC declared a public health emergency in April 2016, including 48 in the Kootenay-Boundary last year. Another 14 died in the first three months of this year.
