The walls of the Quesnel and District Seniors' Centre were covered in posters of supportive messaging Friday (June 14th) at the "Quesnel Shows Up: Honouring Strength and Resilience in an Unregulated Drug Poisoning Crisis" forum. The event was organized by Northern Peer Connections and in collaboration with CSUN, Northern Health and Quesnel Shelter and Support Society
A powerful part of the forum was a panel of speakers who have lived and living experience with drug use. Speakers on the panel shared they didn't feel supported by the government systems in place and some lost the will to live before getting involved with community-based organizations that acknowledge them as people first and foremost.
The panel also shared that communities and organizations should seek out people with lived experiences to support members of the community who use drugs. They suggested the health care system could benefit by having people with lived and living experience at overdose prevention sites (OPS) to help support the people who use those facilities.
Every speaker on the panel works in community groups to improve the community and the lives of people who use drugs, they said that work has also improved their own lives.
Charlene Burmeister, founder and executive director of Coalition of Substance Users of the North (CSUN) said that the best way to support people who use drugs is to have people with those experiences informing programs and offering support.
"People seem to think that the reality is that people who use substances just do not have the ethical or moral ability to make decisions for ourselves," Burmeister said at the forum. She added that government and health care systems don't do enough to meet people where they're at and instead focus solely on sobriety.
"That's the really important core piece that we seem to be missing and that's also where stigma is born from," she said. Burmeister also works with the BC CDC to create harm reduction and peer support documents.
Burmeister read from a letter drafted by people with lived experiences of drug use through CSUN which, in part, said people who use drugs are individuals and not a monolith, that they don't all have backgrounds of trauma and for many of them they can lead successful, happy lives while using substances. It also stated the toxic drug crisis can only end once illegal substances are treated similarly to tobacco, alcohol and cannabis.
Tammy Janzen is the executive director of Quesnel Shelter and Support Society which offers emergency shelter services, supportive housing among other programs aiming to prevent homeless and help unhoused people. She said the event was to share what programs, services and groups are helping Quesnel succeed.
"I want the community to know that people are people. It doesn't matter what class, it doesn't matter what job," she said. "We all need to show up with compassion and just try to help." Janzen said while some people might be reluctant to help people who use drugs having empathy and understanding they don't know their situation is important.
Northern Health has the highest per capita death rate from toxic drugs so far in 2024, says a report by the BC Coroners Service. The report says Quesnel has had nine deaths this year as of April due to unregulated drugs. Northern Health issued an overdose advisory for Quesnel in May but the number of deaths since have not been released.
Northern Health's Chief Medical Officer Jonh Kim spoke at the event and outlined how the health authority is trying to prevent deaths from toxic drugs. He explained that Northern Health has take-home naloxone sites around the region and they are investing in technology to test drugs.
He said the health authority bought two FTIR testing machines which allow people to test their drugs and the health authority to track what drugs are being tainted with.
"If you prevent something bad from happening then part of the result is nothing happens," he said. "Although things are getting worse (across the north) it would have been a lot worse without work and without communities' work."
CSUN and Quesnel Mental Health and Addiction Services both offer drug checking in the city.
Burnmeister said she hopes the community knows that the organizations operating in Quesnel are doing good work and deserve to be celebrated.