Preventing overdoses and stopping stigma around addiction were the aims of a community awareness event held Thursday evening at Douglas Park for International Overdose Awareness Day, which occurs annually on Aug. 31.
Kathy Wagner from Port Coquitlam came out to Langley to raise awareness and share her experience losing her 21-year-old son, Tristan, to drug poisoning in 2017.
“I’m encouraged by seeing the amount of people out here today. People that are not just personally affected, but people that are interested in learning more,” Wagner told the Langley Advance Times.
For this year’s theme “We See You,” Wagner said she volunteered to speak on stage to talk about the importance of including caregivers and those who lost loved ones to drug harms in our conversations of support.
“I see them, I am one of them. I also [want] to share the value of speaking up and sharing our story as a way of reducing stigma, releasing shame, and trading judgement for compassion – I think stories is what will do that,” she said.
Wagner also wrote a memoir about her story living through her son’s addiction, recovery, relapse, and death. It releases on Friday, Sept. 9, which is Recovery Day in B.C. and Wagner said was an intentional date chosen.
“It’s a way for me to hopefully [help] other parents who are struggling with kids in addiction or who have lost their kids to drug harm, to not feel so alone – to let them know there are others, and that there is hope,” Wagner explained.
To those struggling with addiction or people who have loved ones who are, Wagner said “you aren’t alone.”
“We tend to stay quiet about it because of shame and stigma, and we need to start raising our voices so we can find each other, because there are so many of us,” she said.
“Your life is valuable, your life can be beautiful, there is hope for that, and you are not alone.”
The event was the third organized by Daniel Snyder with the Community Action Team, who estimated an attendance of 150 people.
“The impact of overdose reverberates throughout our communities, but so does our collective potential to bring about transformation,” Snyder said in his speech at the event.
“We recognize every person, regardless of their current stage, deserves our unwavering support. Stigma thrives in silence and secrecy, perpetuating an environment of judgement, exclusion, and shame. But awareness is the antidote, increasing understanding is a powerful tool in dismantling stigma.”
In an interview after the event, Snyder said he wants to see judgement suspended for curiosity, and more people trying to understand others’ stories.
“The drug use is the least interesting part of a person’s life. It might be the thing they feel completely trapped by, but it’s not who they are and it’s not what brought them to that place. I want people to be interested in the lives, the hearts, and the stories, of people,” he said.
The event started at 5 p.m. with a free barbecue and resource fair, before an awareness walk took place at 6 p.m. led by the Red Hawk Drummers. The rest of the evening was filled with live music by Hidden Voices and several speakers with lived experience until sunset.
At 8 p.m., attendees were invited to write a message to their lost loved ones on a paper bag and place a battery-powered candle inside. The candles were placed in a circle around purple chairs, which represent those lost to the toxic drug supply.
Since 2013, 323 people in Langley have died of the toxic drug supply crisis.
This year alone, 30 people have died, the most recent report by the B.C. Coroners’ Service revealed, in data released Aug. 29. This includes five deaths reported in Langley in July.
Across B.C., 198 people died in July, a rate of 6.4 deaths per day. It’s a slight increase of deaths from June, which was reported at 191.
The latest report brings the total of toxic drug supply deaths in B.C. this year to 1,455, which could mean the province is on track to exceed its previous worst year, 2022, when 2,383 people died.
In Langley, 44 people died in 2022, and 58 in 2021, which was Langley’s previous worst year.
Fraser Health and Vancouver Coastal Health saw the highest numbers of 397 and 423 deaths, respectively, making up 56 per cent of deaths so far this year.
The province says unregulated drug toxicity is the leading cause of death in B.C. for people aged 10 to 59, accounting for more deaths than homicides, suicides, accidents, and natural diseases combined.
The majority of unregulated drug deaths have occurred inside, with 47 per cent in private residences and 33 per cent in social and supportive housing, shelters, hotels, and other indoor environments.
Before the crisis began around 2015, sparked by widespread use of the powerful opioid fentanyl in street drugs, between five and 10 people were dying of overdoses and toxic drugs per year in Langley.
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