Drug users hold solution

Photo: The Canadian Press

Drug users are the solution to addressing overdose deaths and providing services to people before they die alone, says a woman who attended a meeting of health professionals in Vancouver trying to develop new strategies to deal with a growing crisis in B.C.

Karen Ward, a board member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, was among about 20 drug users who joined doctors, including the provincial health officer, and the chief coroner at the all-day meeting Friday.

Ward lives and works in the Downtown Eastside, where North America's first supervised injection facility opened in 2003 and multiple resources are available for people who use illicit substances.

"We need to emphasize that we are not part of the solution but actually we are the solution. Through empowering drug users to take control of our lives we can find a way out of this," Ward told a news conference.

"What we're coming away from thus far in (Friday's) meeting is that first, the war on drugs has failed. The war on drugs is a war on drug users and we're dying, thousands of us."

Dr. Mark Tyndall, executive director of the BC Centre for Disease Control, said it's time for policy-makers to use a patient or client-centred approach to deal with the overdose issue and that drug users are the ones with the "lived experience."

The City of Vancouver said Friday that more than 400 people could fatally overdose in Vancouver this year based on the number of deaths so far.