Pubdate: Wed, 21 Feb 2018
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2018 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Emily Mathieu
Page: GT1

'IT IS JUST NOT SLOWING DOWN'

Rally in response to the opioid crisis hears tales of loss and 'burnt
out' workers

Kim Pare said his family did everything they could to help their
bright and beautiful daughter, but in the end she couldn't fight the
illness of addiction.

It's been almost four years since Kaitlyn died, at 24, from a
prescription opioid overdose and from her father's perspective nothing
has really changed.

"We are losing a generation of people who could be valuable members of
our society. We have to help them,' Pare said, speaking to about 30
people at a rally at King and York Sts. Tuesday's event was part of a
National Day of Action in response to the opioid and contaminated drug
crisis.

Pare told the Star his daughter turned to drugs and alcohol in her
teens to manage "debilitating anxiety" and eventually to prescription
drugs.

She asked her parents for help, but getting her into rehabilitation
was a long and difficult process. They found a program on the West
Coast, but she was kicked out. The same thing happened at a second
program. She took a bus home to Hamilton and was staying with a
friend, about block from their family home when she used again.

"That is how strong the pull was," Pare said. "The police came to our
house on March 15, 2014, and told us she had passed."

"I feel like we have had our head in the sand for the last four years
since my daughter died," he said. "I've never blamed the system for
this, but I don't think enough has been done by government to address
the crisis."

The rally included speakers and supporters from the Toronto Overdose
Prevention Society (TOPS), Prisoners HIV/AIDS Support Action Network,
Black Lives Matter, the Toronto Harm Reduction Alliance and the South
Riverdale Community Health Centre.

TOPS and the harm reduction alliance have been running a "pop up"
overdose prevention site in Moss Park since mid-August.

Harm reduction worker Zoe Dodd said their team has reversed 168
overdoses at the site, where healthcare workers and volunteers have
overseen 5,185 injections.

"It is just not slowing down," Dodd told the Star. "People are ODing
every day and we are burnt out and burdened with what is happening."

Dodd and fellow advocates are calling for the immediate
decriminalization of all drugs and for the government to declare a
state of emergency.

Toronto has an overdose action plan and safe injection sites are
operating out of a Toronto Public Health building housing the Works
needle exchange program and the South Riverdale centre. A third site
will open at the Fred Victor Centre on Wednesday.

Councillor Joe Cressy said a fourth Queen St. site will open within
weeks, 1,700 members of front-line city staff have been trained in
overdose prevention and the city has received federal approval to
implement drug testing at safe injection sites.

A public awareness campaign will launch soon and the city is working
to improve harm reduction services at live music festivals, he said.

"I think it is fair to say the city of Toronto is at the cutting edge
of progressive harm reduction policy," Cressy said. "But that doesn't
mean that it is enough," he said, adding all levels of government need
to boost their efforts.

The federal health minister's office said the government has responded
to the crisis in a "comprehensive and collaborative manner," including
a $100-million investment to be spent over five years in prevention,
treatment, harm reduction and enforcement, while supporting the Good
Samaritan Drug Overdose Act. The act can offer some legal protection
against charges for possession, if people call in a suspected overdose.

The government also allows agencies to apply to open temporary sites
without fear of criminal charges.

Toronto police do not carry Naloxone kits, to reverse overdoses.
Advocates say fear of arrest prevents people from calling for help.

"Every time our friend, our brother, our sister, our mother or
daughter dies, it takes a piece out of us," said advocate Olympia 
Trypis, 22.

Trypis has spoken about her own drug use, the loss of several friends,
and the need for more mental health services for people managing
constant grief.

"We are never going to get to see them again and it takes a huge toll
on us."
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MAP posted-by: Matt