If you are seeing more purple around today, it’s okay, you’re not going cross-eyed or having a stroke – it is, in fact, International Overdose Awareness Day, held annually on August 31.
Purple serves as “a reminder that every life is precious and to promote open and honest dialogue about problematic substance use,” without fear of shame or stigma. It invites open dialogue about an ongoing and rampant problem in our society that has only worsened in the last decade or so globally.
To me, purple is also inexplicably the right colour recognizing those who go unseen; those who are there, but not there. It’s also why I feel it’s important to raise this awareness in my own forum, here by the candlelight.
So. Why does this day exist in the first place? Where have things gone so wrong that our world needs to talk about this issue collectively? Unfortunately, my dear reader, the answers are not only complex, but systemic, and embedded in the very fabric of our current society.
First, there’s the stats. In the province of British Columbia, the toxic drug crisis and deaths caused by overdoses reached such critical numbers that it was officially declared as a public health emergency in 2016. Since then, more than 12,000 people have died in B.C. alone due to a drug overdose. Today, uncontrolled drug toxicity is the main cause of death among individuals aged 10 to 59 in our province. In June, the number of overdose deaths in B.C. was 184 – this is 6.1 people dying every day on average. And these are not just individuals on the streets; it’s in the comfort of their own homes, at school, or at work.
Again, just in B.C. alone.
The World Health Organization (WHO) paints an equally grim picture for the rest of the world too: the number of opioid overdoses has increased in recent years in several countries, in part due to the increased availability of opioids used in the management of chronic pain, and also due to increasing use of highly potent opioids appearing on the illicit drug market.
In the United States, from 2013 to 2019, synthetic-opioid-related death rates increased by a staggering 1040 per cent.
Even looking just below the surface, it’s fair to say there are a lot of catalysts today that drive people towards desperation and, ultimately, escape from their painful realities through drug abuse – notably, the cost of living, of merely existing, lack of mental health supports and poor prospects for themselves and their family. There are countless others, but these come up often with just about everyone these days.
Governments have started to notice too. There are now harm-reduction and drug testing facilities, where people can get direct support and the drugs can be tested and used in a safe, clinical space. Declaring days like today has also raised awareness across oceans that people needn’t be afraid to open up about their mental health and addiction struggles, and the means of how they deal with those struggles.
But it’s not enough.
The pool is filling way faster than it can hold. The safety net that is meant to catch those who fall through the system’s cracks is weak and perforated by out-of-date and meaningless ideologies. People who have generational trauma, people who have severe addiction in their family and family history, people who live just barely above the waterline or don’t even have a roof over their heads, these all fall through into a dark void, a chasm of desperation and pain from which only a lucky few ever return from.
Problems start even from within the system itself. People don’t have enough money to feed themselves or their family. Housing is spinning out of control and opportunists recklessly take advantage of the disadvantaged at every turn, taking with both arms. Wages are overshadowed by cost of living and mass inflation. Mental health care facilities continue to lose funding and run on bone-dry budgets and staff who are there more so out of kindness and humanity and not for an income. Correctional facilities are packed beyond capacity and staff who are there to provide those mental health supports for those trying to get through the correctional system and rebuild their lives again are few and far between, overworked and overwhelmed.
The safety net that is meant to catch those who fall through the system’s cracks is weak and perforated by out-of-date and meaningless ideologies
And in the end, we constantly hear politicians and self-described social commentators complaining about the rampant homeless problem in countless cities, about the drug-induced violence and drug-induced loss of life that follows. Because very, very few understand or care to see that these people do not fall into this meatgrinder out of choice, and that this vicious cycle will shred away at one’s humanity endlessly for as long as they live and breathe if we, as a society, do not step up and provide the help they need.
We will continue to see this unnecessary loss of life to overdoses. We will continue to see families torn apart. We will continue to see violence and poverty spill into our streets.
And lastly, we’ll continue to stare up towards the balconies of our elected politicians, the powers that be, wondering why our collective calls for action and change continue to go unheard.
Perhaps, on this day they won’t. Yet I cannot help but feel that this day should be every day. That every day we go to someone passed out in the street to see if they’re okay and if they need help. That every day we press our leadership to take responsibility for their power and put it to good use.
That every day we remind ourselves that we are all human, and that we all laugh, and we all cry, and that we all hurt the exact same way, and that we all need help at one point or another in our lives.
For more information on Overdose Awareness Day, check out overdoseday.com
More links on overdose:
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
If you or a loved one is experiencing a mental health crisis:
BC Mental Health Support Line – free, available 24/7: 310-6789 (no area code needed).
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