Amid record-high toxic drug deaths in B.C., mothers who lost their children to poisonous drugs took to the streets of Vancouver to remember their loved ones.
Moms Stop the Harm, a network of Canadian families impacted by the toxic drug crisis, organized the event to memorialize the 10,000 people who have died since B.C.’s drug supply became a public health emergency in 2016.
READ MORE: B.C. sees record high 1,095 toxic drug deaths in first 6 months of 2022
Chris Bossley, a Moms Stop the Harm supporter, travelled from Maple Ridge to downtown Vancouver to hang ribbons along Robson Street. Bossley said that despite the government’s efforts in trying to expand access to addiction treatment facilities, only a safe regulated drug supply will stop people from dying.
“As long as we continue to believe that a treatment-based, abstinence-based approach is the only way to deal with this crisis, we’re never going to get anywhere.”
In 2022, at least 1,095 people in B.C. died of toxic drug overdoses between January and June — the highest number ever recorded in the first six months of a calendar year.
@SchislerCole
cole.schisler@bpdigital.ca
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