Dear Diary: Inside the thoughts of B.C.’s harm reduction program

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This week, a leaked memo in B.C. revealed that hospital workers were being told not to confiscate weapons or illicit drugs from patients – and to look the other way at in-hospital drug dealers. It caused a stir in the B.C. Legislature, but it’s not altogether surprising for a province that has already decriminalized hard drugs, pioneered the government distribution of recreational opioids to addicts and opened one of the world’s most comprehensive networks of low-barrier shelters and safe consumption sites. All of this has been done in the name of “harm reduction”; the notion that any attempt to discourage drug use will only force the activity into the shadows and increase overdose deaths.

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In Dear Diary, the National Post satirically re-imagines a week in the life of a newsmaker. This week, Tristin Hopper takes a journey inside the thoughts of the B.C. harm reduction system.

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Monday

Harm reduction is always a delicate balance of competing needs, particularly in hospital settings. On the one hand, it is improper for health-care staff to be stabbed. On the other, it is literally erasure to police the personal possessions and practices of Folks Who Use Drugs (FWUD).

Studies show that the mere act of telling a hospital patient not to blow crack smoke in a newborn’s face can trigger a potentially deadly stigma spiral. By merely suggesting that crack cocaine (or bladed weapons, or drug transactions) are not welcome in a health-care setting, we are othering society’s most vulnerable and thrusting them into lone-use situations.

By my own cursory calculations, I think I can safely say that this country’s failed prohibitionist policy of confiscating weapons and illicit drugs from hospital patients has resulted in approximately 1.8 million preventable overdose deaths.

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Tuesday

Those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it. And it is for this reason that I occasionally feel compelled to revisit this province’s sorry history of abstinence-based shelter services. It is within living memory that B.C.’s marginalized were not allowed to exercise their human right to shelter unless they surrendered weapons, drugs and acceded to arbitrary segregation based on their sex assigned at birth. In the more tragic cases, they would be subjected to ableist rhetoric about “getting clean” or capitalist indoctrination about “finding a job.”

But in our more equity-focused era, we know that these types of rules act only as barriers to care. By affirming the shelter space as a place where drug use, drug micro-economies and weapon micro-economies can all co-exist, we are forging a thriving, holistic continuum of support.

Wednesday

It should go without saying that forbidding illicit drug users from playgrounds, splash parks and skate parks is an obscene measure rooted in Apartheid. It is, quite simply, the state giving credence to public hysteria. The consumption of opioids is a critical part of any drug user’s life, similar to the chestfeeding that is required of the parent of a new baby. To deny them this central component of their personhood in a public space is nothing less than democide.

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What’s more, it is proper that children be brought within the presence of drug use from an early age. B.C. has also pioneered programs to instruct high schoolers on the proper use of Narcan, but with time we will soon see children as young as five who are well-versed on sharp disposal.

Thursday

We would be negligent and frankly genocidal if we were to continue believing that harm reduction is a policy that applies only to the realm of health care or social services. Because if there is one domain that is in dire need of destigmatization, it is our traffic and motor vehicle policy.

Our roads are a bastion of colonialist regimentation, in which users are given inflexible demands to “stop,” “go” or “yield,” heedless to their individual lived experiences. And I need not tell you of the archaic and racist laws intended to prevent FWUD from piloting a motor vehicle in any capacity.

It’s why we have an urgent need to view traffic control through an equity lens. Stop signs, dividing lines, seatbelt laws, designated parking areas; all of these are exclusionary measures that disempower equity-seeking folks from obtaining the benefits of our transportation infrastructure.

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Friday

Since harm reduction in hospitals is suddenly such a hot topic in this province, can I make a suggestion? Why are we still granting designated smoking areas to tobacco users? You have a multi-million dollar facility whose entire purpose is the provision of health care, and right out front they put a dedicated bench where a bunch of inconsiderate nicotine addicts can suck down cancer sticks to their heart’s content.

You know what cigarette smoke smells like to me? Personal failure. It’s the scent of a weak-willed derelict content to bathe the rest of society in carcinogens just so long as they’re able to get their twice-hourly hit of dopamine. Just quit, you dumbass.

I mean, how the hell are we supposed to build a destigmatizing, affirmation-focused health-care system when these careless idiots keep elbowing their way in and demanding accommodation? Listen up, Marlboro Man, I can’t run a safe consumption site if you’re going to keep stinking up the place with third-hand smoke.

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