Toward a World that Works for Everyone
By Benjamin Hart, Intelligencer, December 6th, 2022 https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/12/sam-quinones-on-meth-fentanyl-and-homelessness.html Sam Quinones has covered gangs, crime, and the border for 35 years, including a ten-year stint at the L.A. Times. He established himself as a leading voice on the opioid epidemic with the 2015 book Dreamland, which told the story of how prescription-drug companies and a sophisticated […]
This is part one of an investigation into a revolutionary money laundering system involving Chinese organized crime, Latin American drug cartels and Chinese officials. Some critics of Beijing say that analysis applies to another threat: fentanyl. China is the top producer of the lethal drug that has killed tens of thousands of Americans. . . […]
Opinion: Vancouver’s DTES funding approach is a “band-aid on a broken leg” By Matthew Norris (guest writer), Daily Hive, Aug 31 2022 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/opinion-vancouver-downtown-eastside-funding Every Vancouverite deserves to feel safe and be safe in our city. But throwing more money at our failed approach isn’t the answer. Here’s why. Our city is stuck in a tragic […]
By Heather Wishart-Smith, Forbes, July 12, 2022 https://www.forbes.com/sites/heatherwishartsmith/2022/07/12/reinventing-how-we-view-substance-abuse/?sh=4acf800a66cb In September 2016, there was a video that went viral. It was viewed and shared so many times that the Washington Post and New York Times covered it, in addition to countless local and national news outlets. It wasn’t Adele’s Carpool Karaoke with James Corden or the […]
2021 now deadliest year for illicit-drug overdoses in B.C., after record 201 deaths in October, coroner says CBC News, December 9th, 2021 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-toxic-drugs-oct-2021-1.6279018 As the number of people dying from illicit drug overdoses in British Columbia continues to climb to grim heights, the province’s coroner is calling for an urgent and immediate response from all […]
By Kathleen Mary, Voice of Freedom, January 5, 2022 https://voiceoffreedom.ca/the-passionate-eye-the-oxy-kingpins-and-the-way-of-compassion/ Below is a link to a documentary called, The Oxy Kingpins, detailing how a network of pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors and retailers orchestrated and perpetuated the opioid crisis that has killed over half a million people in America. To view this video, click on the photo […]
Jail not the answer for people caught dealing fentanyl to support their own drug addictions, B.C. judge says The dealer in the case was introduced to crack cocaine in Grade 8, struggled with addiction most of her life By Jason Proctor, CBC News, Dec 07, 2021 A Vancouver Island judge says courts need to reconsider […]
“This is the power of gathering: it inspires us, delightfully, to be more hopeful, more joyful, more thoughtful: in a word, more alive.” —Alice Waters Maria Shriver I’ve Been Thinking… I just had one of those weeks, but I don’t mean what you think. Usually when someone says “I had a week,” they mean that […]
Archangel Gabrielle: “I speak about the courage because when one of them loses their joy or missteps there is the acknowledgement that not only does it affect the individual, but the collective of the tribe is also immediately affected. So, the tribe, the community comes together to heal that individual and to help restore that […]
US reaches record high of more than 96,000 drug overdose deaths in a 12-month period, CDC data show Virginia Langmaid, CNN News, October 13, 2021 Via Apple News Reported drug overdose deaths in the United States hit a new high of more than 96,000 in the 12-month period ending March 2021, according to data released […]
Hulu’s ‘Dopesick,’ Michael Keaton’s Opioid Epidemic Show, Will Make You Sick With Rage By Joe Berkowitz, Fast Company, October 14, 2021 https://www.fastcompany.com/90686041/hulus-dopesick-michael-keatons-opioid-epidemic-show-will-make-you-sick-with-rage About six weeks ago, Purdue Pharma was dissolved in a bankruptcy settlement that cost its owners, the Sackler family, $4.5 billion. It was exactly the outcome that the company tried to avoid 25 […]
British Columbia, Canada, into its 5th year of opioid health emergency, will be the first province to introduce a safe drug supply in an effort to reduce the staggering number of overdose deaths. In the past 25 years, more than 12,632 British Columbians have died of illicit drug overdoses. B.C.’s chief coroner Lisa Lapointe […]
Amanda Page Brown completed her training to become an end-of-life doula and now is trying to secure funding to work full time as a death doula in the area of Vancouver hit hardest by Canada’s overdose crisis Death doula says opioid epidemic means more end-of-life services needed in the Downtown Eastside by Travis Lupick, The […]
The pandemic is giving rise to broader local initiatives. Opinion: We have the ‘solution’ for Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside By DTES Response Volunteers, March 30th, 2021 https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/opinion/opinion-we-have-the-solution-for-vancouvers-downtown-eastside-3587834 One year ago we launched DTES Response: We created this initiative to coordinate efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and help ensure this unprecedented threat did not disproportionately […]
Overdose deaths are surging in Canada, and clergy close to the crisis are doing the hard work of saying goodbye. We are all treasures and valuable. Drug users are like the lepers of our time. You can’t talk about them. They are not viewed as people. We need to relearn that we are people together. […]
