Media Advisory of Press Conference: Bill 22 Stands to Increase the Opioid Crisis and Youth Deaths; Bill 22 Must be Withdrawn

WHAT: The Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Health Justice, and BC Civil Liberties Association are hosting a press conference urging the provincial government to withdraw Bill 22. Bill 22 proposes amendments to BC’s Mental Health Act to create a new form of detention and involuntary health care in BC for youth who have experienced an overdose.

Speakers will address key concerns with Bill 22, including:

Involuntary detention, including use of restraints, of youth for up to 7 days following an overdose, without the consent of a youth or a parent/guardian.
Lack of comprehensive and meaningful engagement with Indigenous peoples, contrary to the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Harmful impacts of coercive healthcare on youth who use substances during an opioid overdose health crisis.
Establishing a comprehensive voluntary system of substance use services throughout BC.

WHEN: Monday July 27, 2020 at 10 a.m. PST

WHERE: Via Zoom here, media registration opens at 9:45 am.
Simultaneous livestream through UBCIC Facebook page.

SPEAKERS:

Jennifer Charlesworth: BC’s Representative for Children and Youth
Kukpi7 Judy Wilson: Union of BC Indian Chiefs
Kali Sedgemore: member of 'Namgis First Nation, OPS youth peer and outreach worker
Hawkfeather Peterson: BC/Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors
Garth Mullins: Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, Crackdown Podcast
Laura Johnston: Health Justice
Meghan McDermott: BC Civil Liberties Association

Media contact:
Iman Baobeid: [email protected] or 604-401-4517
Ellena Neel: [email protected] or 778-866-0548

Download PDF

Showing 1 reaction

Frank Sterle Jr commented 2020-07-30 13:10:45 -0700
I used to be one of those who—while sympathetic—would look down on those who’d ‘allowed’ themselves to become addicted to alcohol and illicit drugs. However, upon learning that serious life trauma (e.g. adverse childhood experiences) is so often behind the addict’s debilitating addiction, I began to understand ball-and-chain self-medicating.
The greater the drug-induced euphoria or escape one attains from its use, the more one wants to repeat the experience; and the more intolerable one finds their sober reality, the more pleasurable that escape should be perceived. By extension, the greater one’s mental pain or trauma while sober, the greater the need for reality escape, thus the more addictive the escape form can be.
Yet, in many straight minds these poor souls have somehow committed a moral crime, perhaps even those who’d become addicted to opiates prescribed them for an innocent sports or work injury. We now know pharmaceutical corporations intentionally pushed their very addictive opiate pain killers—the real moral crime—for which they got off relatively lightly, considering the resulting immense suffering and overdose death numbers.
(Frank Sterle Jr.)