CBCNEWS — The Nature of Things
20260816 080000 UTC
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[00:00:00] , 55 couples came together on the
[00:00:03] US show, but only a handful, 8 remained together. Still,
[00:00:07] romantics don't seem fazed. I really hope I get I get to be
[00:00:11] part of it. No word yet on When
[00:00:14] Love Is Blind Canada will begin filming. Mahdi Gebrselassie,
[00:00:18] CBC News, Toronto.
[00:00:29] Hi, I'm Michelle Gaub. Communities
[00:00:30] across Canada are facing a deeply complex and growing drug
[00:00:33] crisis, one that continues to evolve
[00:00:36] and touch the lives of people in every region of the country.
[00:00:40] Over the next hour, we'll take a closer look at
[00:00:43] stories revealing how this crisis is shaping our
[00:00:46] healthcare system, straining housing,
[00:00:48] challenging policing, and impacting families. We
[00:00:51] begin by examining some of the underlying causes and the far
[00:00:55] reaching consequences of a crisis with no easy solution.
[00:05:02] These are videos inside overseas drug labs sent to us
[00:05:04] from people claiming to produce a synthetic opioid more than 40
[00:05:08] times stronger than fentanyl.
[00:05:11] Check it out. Ready to be smuggled into Canada. And The
[00:05:14] thing is, all we had to do was respond to
[00:05:16] ads and posts on social media, and within minutes,
[00:05:19] we're on the phone with criminals.
[00:05:21] This is illegal in Canada, right? You know that. Yeah,
[00:05:24] I know the drug Knight Azines, a deadly opioid that's popping
[00:05:28] up all over the world. Nitrazine. Nitrazine. Nitrazine.
[00:05:31] They're called a netizens. I see people coughing up blood on
[00:05:34] seeing people dying. And we're going to take you inside this
[00:05:38] emerging crisis. It can kill people, right?
[00:05:40] I just want you to make sure you know that
[00:05:46] netizens are so powerful, it can be hard to wrap your
[00:05:50] head around. So to give you an idea,
[00:05:52] let's start with morphine. Heroin is roughly 2 times more
[00:05:56] potent than morphine. Fentanyl is up to 40 times stronger than
[00:06:00] heroin and night Azines, they're up to 43 times stronger
[00:06:03] than fentanyl, and they're killing people
[00:06:06] around the world. It took just one and it was poison. He was
[00:06:10] unresponsive on the bed and he was he was turning blue. He'd
[00:06:14] already gone. So how many people have died in Canada?
[00:06:17] And we ask every corner across the country. And since 2021,
[00:06:20] there have been over 300 deaths caused or suspected to be
[00:06:24] caused by netizens.
[00:06:27] The drugs are flowing into Canada. In recent years,
[00:06:29] police have seized medicines and busts across the country. 2
[00:06:33] busts in Quebec alone last year accounted for over a million
[00:06:36] fake pharmaceutical pills laced with night azines. Why would
[00:06:40] criminals want to use night azines when fentanyl is right
[00:06:43] there? Obviously not a fan of
[00:06:44] organized crime groups, but they're going to look for
[00:06:47] more efficiencies, right? And if you have a more potent
[00:06:50] drug that can be cut and achieve the same effect with
[00:06:53] lower volumes, that's appealing. Where are these noises coming from? 75%
[00:06:57] are are coming from China. Here's a mugshot of Ontario man
[00:07:01] Matthew Fan CBS a intercepted shipments of night Azines from
[00:07:04] China allegedly for him hidden in pet food. So where are
[00:07:07] people finding netizens online ads are are are how this this
[00:07:10] market functions right now. You know there's going to be
[00:07:13] websites that might advertise it ownership. Each time a
[00:07:16] website gets taken down, it's back up the next day. If
[00:07:19] you close down the business entity overseas,
[00:07:22] they're going to recreate a commercial enterprise the next
[00:07:25] day under a different business name. Our investigation,
[00:07:28] supported by open source investigators at Bellingcat,
[00:07:31] found hundreds of netizen ads and posts all over the Internet,
[00:07:35] images of powders, chemical names for various
[00:07:38] night azines and contact info on platforms like ex Reddit,
[00:07:41] LinkedIn, Google and perhaps which is
[00:07:44] owned by Adobe. We also find them on ecommerce websites in
[00:07:48] India.
[00:07:51] So we respond to dozens of these ads and within minutes
[00:07:55] we're on the phone with criminals,
[00:07:57] 14 different sellers who are all part of a global network
[00:08:01] based in India, China, the UK and the US. We find this
[00:08:04] seller on Exporters India you. Rush Enterprises says they're
[00:08:08] an Indian pharma trading company that's been in business
[00:08:12] for over a decade. Is it coming from India or China?
[00:08:15] Coming from India,
[00:08:16] because recently due to the the issues going on between the US
[00:08:20] and China with the tariffs, there's been a lot of blockage
[00:08:24] from China. So you know it's because it's illegal in Canada,
[00:08:28] right? Yeah, I understand it's dangerous as
[00:08:30] well to if it's the wrong supply, it can kill someone.
[00:08:36] They reveal how they smuggle it into Canada. What do you label
[00:08:41] it as? Yeah, usually it can either be a
[00:08:44] caffeine detergent. Sometimes we can go with the spices. The
[00:08:48] seller who says he's from the UK has another way he hides
[00:08:53] drugs.
[00:08:55] Maybe you put it on your on your grams in basketball and
[00:08:59] everything to you. Others show us how they conceal night
[00:09:03] azines and Chinese herbal products and teapots and they
[00:09:07] can be delivered the same day that we use most often is,
[00:09:11] you know, they're from Michigan, Detroit to, you know,
[00:09:15] Winsell. So we use the tunnel and that's easy,
[00:09:18] easy movement. How long would it take?
[00:09:21] Maximum should be about 10 hours. We get so many images
[00:09:25] from sellers, barrels of chemicals and pill presses,
[00:09:29] we start to notice similarities. These sellers claim to be
[00:09:32] different, but they use the same scales
[00:09:35] and the same Bitcoin address.
[00:09:40] We ask all the sellers to show us proof they've sent drugs to
[00:09:44] Canada before. One who calls himself Jerry shares images and
[00:09:47] videos of their lab in China.
[00:09:50] This is a video for Eric on May 22,
[00:09:53] 2025. And records of past shipments to Quebec labeled as
[00:09:56] pearlescent pigments. And this one to Ontario,
[00:09:59] which has a clue, a tracking number. We put it
[00:10:03] into the FedEx tracking system. It leaves Beijing and arrives
[00:10:07] in the US in Anchorage, AK, then Memphis before being
[00:10:10] delivered in Waterloo. OR worried that this will continue
[00:10:14] to ring to rise as as an ongoing threat. Crime groups
[00:10:17] are not dealing with product, they're dealing with death.
[00:10:40] TRUMP ADMINISTRATION. >>> WELL, HARM REDUCTION WORKERS ARE WARNING OF A NEW DRUG
[00:10:44] >>> WELL, HARM REDUCTION WORKERS ARE WARNING OF A NEW DRUG CIRCULATING IN THE CITY CALLED
[00:10:48] ARE WARNING OF A NEW DRUG CIRCULATING IN THE CITY CALLED RHINO TRANK.
[00:10:51] CIRCULATING IN THE CITY CALLED RHINO TRANK. IT'S FENTANYL LACE WE HAD A DRUG
[00:10:53] RHINO TRANK. IT'S FENTANYL LACE WE HAD A DRUG USED IN VETERINARY MEDICINE, AS
[00:10:57] IT'S FENTANYL LACE WE HAD A DRUG USED IN VETERINARY MEDICINE, AS ALI CHIASSON REPORTS, IT'S
[00:10:59] USED IN VETERINARY MEDICINE, AS ALI CHIASSON REPORTS, IT'S CAUSES OVERDOSE THAT IS ARE
[00:11:01] ALI CHIASSON REPORTS, IT'S CAUSES OVERDOSE THAT IS ARE DIFFICULTY TO REVERSE.
[00:11:03] CAUSES OVERDOSE THAT IS ARE DIFFICULTY TO REVERSE. A POWERFUL TRANQUILIZER USED IN
[00:11:07] DIFFICULTY TO REVERSE. A POWERFUL TRANQUILIZER USED IN VETERINARY MEDICINE.
[00:11:09] A POWERFUL TRANQUILIZER USED IN VETERINARY MEDICINE. IT'S CURRENTLY FOUND IN 80% OF
[00:11:12] VETERINARY MEDICINE. IT'S CURRENTLY FOUND IN 80% OF THE FENTANYL SAMPLES CHECKED BY IT'S CURRENTLY FOUND IN 80% OF THE FENTANYL SAMPLES CHECKED BY THE TORONTO DRUG-CHECKING
[00:11:16] THE FENTANYL SAMPLES CHECKED BY THE TORONTO DRUG-CHECKING SERVICE. THE TORONTO DRUG-CHECKING SERVICE. >> PEOPLE HAVING A BAD
[00:11:19] SERVICE. >> PEOPLE HAVING A BAD EXPERIENCE WITH THE DRUG THAT >> PEOPLE HAVING A BAD EXPERIENCE WITH THE DRUG THAT THEY USED AND WANTED TO
[00:11:23] EXPERIENCE WITH THE DRUG THAT THEY USED AND WANTED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT LED TO THAT, THEY USED AND WANTED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT LED TO THAT, BECAUSE THIS DIDN'T ALIGN WITH
[00:11:27] UNDERSTAND WHAT LED TO THAT, BECAUSE THIS DIDN'T ALIGN WITH SORT OF PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES BECAUSE THIS DIDN'T ALIGN WITH SORT OF PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES THAT THEY HAD.
[00:11:30] SORT OF PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES THAT THEY HAD. >> Reporter: FENTANYL IS BEING THAT THEY HAD. >> Reporter: FENTANYL IS BEING CUT WITH RHINOTRANK BECAUSE IS
[00:11:34] >> Reporter: FENTANYL IS BEING CUT WITH RHINOTRANK BECAUSE IS INCREASES THE EFFECT. CUT WITH RHINOTRANK BECAUSE IS INCREASES THE EFFECT. >> TO TRY AND SORT OF, LIKE,
[00:11:38] INCREASES THE EFFECT. >> TO TRY AND SORT OF, LIKE, INCREASE THE LONGEVITY OF THE >> TO TRY AND SORT OF, LIKE, INCREASE THE LONGEVITY OF THE EXPERIENCE.
[00:11:42] INCREASE THE LONGEVITY OF THE EXPERIENCE. >> Reporter: BUT IT CAUSES EXPERIENCE. >> Reporter: BUT IT CAUSES HEART RATES TO DROP.
[00:11:46] >> Reporter: BUT IT CAUSES HEART RATES TO DROP. IN COMBINATION WITH THE OPIOID HEART RATES TO DROP. IN COMBINATION WITH THE OPIOID EFFECT OF SLOWING BREATHING.
[00:11:50] IN COMBINATION WITH THE OPIOID EFFECT OF SLOWING BREATHING. >> IT'S REALLY HARD TO FIND A EFFECT OF SLOWING BREATHING. >> IT'S REALLY HARD TO FIND A PULSE ON PEOPLE.
[00:11:53] >> IT'S REALLY HARD TO FIND A PULSE ON PEOPLE. >> Reporter: OVERDOSES ARE PULSE ON PEOPLE. >> Reporter: OVERDOSES ARE HARD TO REVERSE.
[00:11:57] >> Reporter: OVERDOSES ARE HARD TO REVERSE. NALOXONE CAN REVERSE THE HARD TO REVERSE. NALOXONE CAN REVERSE THE FENTANYL, BUT DOES NOTHING FOR
[00:12:00] NALOXONE CAN REVERSE THE FENTANYL, BUT DOES NOTHING FOR THE TRANQUILIZER IT'S LACED FENTANYL, BUT DOES NOTHING FOR THE TRANQUILIZER IT'S LACED WITH.
[00:12:04] THE TRANQUILIZER IT'S LACED WITH. >> THEY MIGHT STAY IN THE WITH. >> THEY MIGHT STAY IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT FOR A
[00:12:07] >> THEY MIGHT STAY IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT FOR A LITTLE BIT LONGER. EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT FOR A LITTLE BIT LONGER. THEY MIGHT NEED AN IV, BECAUSE
[00:12:11] LITTLE BIT LONGER. THEY MIGHT NEED AN IV, BECAUSE THEIR BLOOD PRESSURE IS LOWER. THEY MIGHT NEED AN IV, BECAUSE THEIR BLOOD PRESSURE IS LOWER. >> Reporter: SOMETHING
[00:12:15] THEIR BLOOD PRESSURE IS LOWER. >> Reporter: SOMETHING HOSPITALS HERE ARE TRYING TO >> Reporter: SOMETHING HOSPITALS HERE ARE TRYING TO AVOID.
[00:12:18] HOSPITALS HERE ARE TRYING TO AVOID. >> THE OTHER EFFECT THAT WE'RE AVOID. >> THE OTHER EFFECT THAT WE'RE SEEING IN PHILADELPHIA IS THIS
[00:12:22] >> THE OTHER EFFECT THAT WE'RE SEEING IN PHILADELPHIA IS THIS REALLY BAD WITHDRAWAL SYNDROME
[00:12:24] SEEING IN PHILADELPHIA IS THIS REALLY BAD WITHDRAWAL SYNDROME WHICH HAS LED TO LOTS OF ICU REALLY BAD WITHDRAWAL SYNDROME WHICH HAS LED TO LOTS OF ICU PRESENTATIONS, AND THE QUESTION
[00:12:28] WHICH HAS LED TO LOTS OF ICU PRESENTATIONS, AND THE QUESTION IS HOW THAT'S GOING TO PLAY OUT PRESENTATIONS, AND THE QUESTION IS HOW THAT'S GOING TO PLAY OUT HERE IN TORONTO.
[00:12:32] IS HOW THAT'S GOING TO PLAY OUT HERE IN TORONTO. >> IF THERE WAS AN OVERDOSE, WE HERE IN TORONTO. >> IF THERE WAS AN OVERDOSE, WE COULD TREAT IT HERE.
[00:12:36] >> IF THERE WAS AN OVERDOSE, WE COULD TREAT IT HERE. >> Reporter: I MET WITH RAY COULD TREAT IT HERE. >> Reporter: I MET WITH RAY CLARK OF THE PARKDALE QUEEN WEST
[00:12:40] >> Reporter: I MET WITH RAY CLARK OF THE PARKDALE QUEEN WEST COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRE INSIDE
[00:12:42] CLARK OF THE PARKDALE QUEEN WEST COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRE INSIDE THEIR SHUTTERED SAFE CONSUMPTION COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRE INSIDE THEIR SHUTTERED SAFE CONSUMPTION SITE, SINCE THE PROVINCE CLOSED
[00:12:46] THEIR SHUTTERED SAFE CONSUMPTION SITE, SINCE THE PROVINCE CLOSED IT LAST YEAR. SITE, SINCE THE PROVINCE CLOSED IT LAST YEAR. >> WE HAVE LESS OF A REALLY
[00:12:50] IT LAST YEAR. >> WE HAVE LESS OF A REALLY POINT IN TIME PICTURE OF WHAT
[00:12:52] >> WE HAVE LESS OF A REALLY POINT IN TIME PICTURE OF WHAT WE'RE SEEING IN THE DRUG SUPPLY.
[00:12:54] POINT IN TIME PICTURE OF WHAT WE'RE SEEING IN THE DRUG SUPPLY. >> Reporter: IN THIS NEW ERA
[00:12:58] >> Reporter: IN THIS NEW ERA OF ABSTINENCE-BASED TREATMENT MODELS IN ONTARIO, HE SAYS... OF ABSTINENCE-BASED TREATMENT MODELS IN ONTARIO, HE SAYS... >> WE NEED TO THINK ABOUT
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[00:15:29] Thanks for joining us as we explore Canada's drug crisis.
[00:15:31] Addiction has many faces and doesn't discriminate against
[00:15:34] anyone. People from various walks of life struggle with
[00:15:38] such addiction. There are personal stories behind the
[00:15:41] numbers we see in the headlines, and those stories don't always
[00:15:45] match the stereotypes associated with users.
[00:15:59] What would you describe as rock bottom for you?
[00:16:02] Ohm boy?
[00:16:04] It was definitely the last three months of my using.
[00:16:08] I had collapsed some of the veins in my arm because I've
[00:16:12] been using so much. So I was sitting like poking around,
[00:16:15] like trying to find a, a vein, which is very painful. I would
[00:16:19] use until I passed out and I, I could be using for 24 or 48
[00:16:22] hours straight. I would pass out. I get up the next day and
[00:16:26] say like I have to get my act together and I just the sort of
[00:16:29] the mental challenge of doing that was just overwhelming. So
[00:16:33] the solution was I'll just get high again.
[00:16:37] And that's, that's what it was like. It was
[00:16:39] I was, I was hoping that I would overdose and then I that would
[00:16:44] solve my problems well, but I didn't have the courage
[00:16:46] to kill myself.
[00:16:54] Vancouver is a city of gleaming towers,
[00:16:57] fancy restaurants and high end shops.
[00:17:00] But just a short walk from all of that is a much different
[00:17:04] world,
[00:17:07] the Downtown East Side, where the dangers of addiction
[00:17:10] are always easy to find.
[00:17:13] This is also where Gordon Lowe's found himself at the
[00:17:16] pinnacle of his career as CEO, one of Canada's most successful
[00:17:21] retailers. He was wandering these alleyways in search of
[00:17:25] the cocaine that had taken over his life.
[00:17:30] He considers himself one of the rare lucky ones to survive
[00:17:34] these streets and his addiction. And for the first time in
[00:17:38] nearly 30 years, he's come back to the Downtown
[00:17:42] East Side to share his story.
[00:17:45] So how does it feel to be walking here?
[00:17:47] OHT It's a it brings back bad memories for sure. And I've
[00:17:51] been in a lot of these alleys, mostly at night time,
[00:17:55] and they're dangerous places to be.
[00:17:58] I almost got knifed in one alley. And yeah, it's,
[00:18:02] it's a rough,
[00:18:03] rough place. I'm curious, when you look around here and
[00:18:07] you look into the faces of the people who are on the streets
[00:18:10] of the Downtown Eastside, Yeah. What do you see?
[00:18:14] Ah, I I see sadness,
[00:18:18] despair, and complete hopelessness.
[00:18:32] For Gordon Lowe's, that life of sadness,
[00:18:34] despair and hopelessness began with a single terrible decision
[00:18:39] he made nearly 30 years ago.
[00:18:43] I want to start with the moment in your life that I think
[00:18:46] changed everything. And that was the first time that you
[00:18:50] smoked crack cocaine to take us to that moment. Yeah,
[00:18:53] so I ended up with with the getting involved with the
[00:18:57] ultimate femme fatale.
[00:19:00] She was a stripper from Seattle. I've been dating her for about
[00:19:03] a year when I was in Seattle every couple weeks on business.
[00:19:07] She ended up moving in with me in Vancouver and within two
[00:19:10] months of her moving in, I discovered that she had a
[00:19:12] drug problem. I came home one day early and she was all
[00:19:15] messed up and broke down and admitted that she was a drug
[00:19:18] addict. She'd been an addict since she was 16 years old.
[00:19:23] We got her into treatment a couple of times. It didn't work.
[00:19:26] I basically said to her, you know,
[00:19:28] I can't live with someone who's an addict like this. Like,
[00:19:32] it's just not, you know, I'm too busy and I don't want
[00:19:35] to have that, that stress. And she basically
[00:19:37] basically said, I'll, I'll leave,
[00:19:39] but at least try it with me once and you'll be able to see
[00:19:43] how it makes me feel and you'll have a bit more empathy for my
[00:19:46] situation. So on a Friday night, we sat down on the kitchen
[00:19:50] table. She handed me a, a crack pipe.
[00:19:52] And at that point in your life, you're 48 years old,
[00:19:55] you had not used any drugs at all, right,
[00:19:58] Except one time hash when you were like 20 years old. Yeah.
[00:20:01] Yeah. So I didn't do drugs. I was around them in the music
[00:20:05] business back in the 70s. And it just didn't didn't try them.
[00:20:10] I didn't drink much. And so I didn't have any of those sort
[00:20:14] of tendencies. So it became it was a complete shock to me that
[00:20:18] at the age of 48 by by smoking crack once. And I didn't,
[00:20:21] I think I thought I was invincible. I think I could do
[00:20:25] this. It's not a big deal. I'll survive. And it really it copy
[00:20:29] the passage in your book where you describe this moment is
[00:20:33] incredible. I'd like you to read it for us here. It begins
[00:20:37] with seconds after exhaling. OK,
[00:20:40] seconds after exhaling, a powerful rush of euphoria
[00:20:44] washes over me,
[00:20:46] exploding in a kaleidoscopic starburst inside my brain,
[00:20:50] a super sized supernova. I'm engulfed by an overwhelming,
[00:20:54] mind blowing meteor shower of ecstasy that wraps me in a cozy
[00:20:58] cocoon of pure joy. And then a vast calm,
[00:21:01] like the eerie stillness of floating in outer space in a
[00:21:05] New York second. I'm feeling very fine, then fantastic,
[00:21:09] and then ******* awesome. And that feeling was so powerful
[00:21:14] that for the next, I don't know,
[00:21:16] 1000 days, yeah. It was the most important
[00:21:19] thing in your life. Yeah. Yeah. It's
[00:21:22] getting high. Solve all of my problems. When you're stressed
[00:21:26] about work or you're stressed about being an addict and
[00:21:29] you're stressed about people finding out,
[00:21:32] getting high is the solution. It just makes you feel better.
[00:21:36] And the extraordinary thing is while you were doing this on
[00:21:40] Friday nights and Saturdays and Sundays here in Vancouver,
[00:21:43] you are continuing as as the CEO of Sleep Country,
[00:21:47] one of the most successful retailers in Canada. Tell me
[00:21:50] about your work week. So
[00:21:53] Christine McGee and I basically split responsibilities. So she
[00:21:57] was managing most of the day-to-day business,
[00:21:59] the the Salesforce, the distribution,
[00:22:02] the accounting administration and I handle all the real
[00:22:05] estate merchandising in relationship with vendors and
[00:22:08] stuff. So very little of my time was spent with people
[00:22:12] within Slate Country was spent with external people. And so I
[00:22:15] managed my own agenda and so I could basically tell people,
[00:22:19] you know, I've got a meeting in Toronto and I'll be gone
[00:22:23] batteries and then I go and get hyper 2 days and no one would
[00:22:26] know the difference. And, you know,
[00:22:28] when we were opening in Calgary, I would tell them, you know,
[00:22:31] the people in Toronto that I was in Calgary,
[00:22:33] the people in in Vancouver that I was in Seattle. So it was
[00:22:36] just, you know, basically game of,
[00:22:38] of moving things around. OK. But other than the deception,
[00:22:41] where you actually getting stuff done?
[00:22:43] Were you getting your work done? Yeah, no, I,
[00:22:46] I was functioning very well. Cocaine gets out of your system
[00:22:49] within about 48 hours or so. And so you, you can appear and actually
[00:22:53] function in a very normal way. And I was a bit,
[00:22:56] I was mostly a workaholic at the time. So I had, you know,
[00:23:00] that determination and drive to really get the stuff done that
[00:23:04] needed to be done at work and not have it affect my life. As
[00:23:08] incredible as all of that is,
[00:23:11] it eventually did affect your life. And you couldn't keep
[00:23:14] these two parts of your life going. Yeah. So this this the
[00:23:18] stress of of people finding out that I was messed up and I was
[00:23:22] getting increasingly messed up, you know,
[00:23:24] on a regular basis. And I didn't think I could carry off
[00:23:27] the charade anymore. So I was I was constantly terrified that I
[00:23:31] would get caught out in some, you know,
[00:23:34] outrageous line. There were a lot of outrageous lies that I
[00:23:37] told to account for where I was supposed to be, but I wasn't. And
[00:23:41] so it just, it was like this huge sort of
[00:23:44] tidal wave of stress building and building and building and
[00:23:47] building. I ended up shooting U cocaine within a year of that
[00:23:51] first hit on a crack pipe
[00:23:54] and by May of 1998 I couldn't hold it together. I I was
[00:23:58] certain that I was gonna crash and everybody would find out.
[00:24:02] So I took a leave of absence from work and I told my
[00:24:05] partners that I would be back on the job my Labour Day. And I
[00:24:10] figure 3 months I'll have enough time to get myself clean
[00:24:13] and sober with no stress, no distractions. And all I did
[00:24:17] was basically just continue to go downhill. So I was
[00:24:21] completely isolated, basically shooting up cocaine
[00:24:24] on a daily basis. And at one point,
[00:24:28] this executive from Sleep Country Canada, Yeah.
[00:24:32] Is walking around here and the Downtown East Side trying to
[00:24:35] score drugs. Yeah, Yeah. I've, I've been in and out of the
[00:24:39] alleyways. And I had learned by that time that the way you can
[00:24:42] score drugs in almost any city in North America,
[00:24:45] as if you find us a street ****** they always have a drug
[00:24:49] connection. And so I would come down here and look for a ******
[00:24:53] get her drug connection and then hook up with with that was
[00:24:56] a dealer. I mean, to hear that story to to,
[00:24:59] to look at you, to know who you were as this
[00:25:02] executive and to hear you came down to the Downtown East Side to find
[00:25:05] a ****** to find drugs is mind boggle.
[00:25:08] Yeah. And yeah, I've, I've, I've been through the alleyways
[00:25:12] down here. I've been here like at, you know, 4 in the morning,
[00:25:17] have been stopped by the police down here. I had to go and
[00:25:20] basically bail out my, my girlfriend out of the
[00:25:24] Brandies H1 night because she was in there buying drugs and
[00:25:27] some guy was basically holding her hostage. And I had to come
[00:25:31] down here and go up to the room and pay the guy $200 to let her
[00:25:36] go. So it's, it's, it's, it's an incredible world that
[00:25:39] it's just unbelievable. What would you describe as rock
[00:25:43] bottom for you? OHP boy.
[00:25:47] It was definitely the last three months of my using.
[00:25:51] I had collapsed some of the veins in my arm because I'd
[00:25:54] been using so much. So I was sitting like poking around like
[00:25:58] trying to find a, a vein, which is very painful. I would
[00:26:01] use until I passed out and I, I could be using for 24 or 48
[00:26:04] hours straight. I would pass out. I get up the next day and
[00:26:08] say like I have to get my act together and I just the sort of
[00:26:12] the mental challenge of doing that was just overwhelming. So
[00:26:15] the solution was I'll just get high again.
[00:26:19] And that's, that's what it was like. It was I was,
[00:26:23] I was hoping that I would overdose and then I that would
[00:26:26] solve my problems well, but I didn't have the courage
[00:26:29] to kill myself.
[00:26:32] After more than 1000 days of being addicted to cocaine,
[00:26:35] Gordon Lounds, still the CEO of Sleep Country
[00:26:39] Canada, turned to his friend and
[00:26:41] company cofounder to finally ask for help.
[00:26:46] Two days past that, my deadline that I had set for
[00:26:48] myself, I broke down a phone, Steve gone. And I said, look,
[00:26:52] you know, I've had some health problems, but what you don't know is that
[00:26:56] I've got a cocaine problem and it's really bad.
[00:26:59] And I thought that he was just gonna just blast off at me and
[00:27:03] being really upset with me and,
[00:27:06] and he really, he surprised me. He said,
[00:27:09] I'm really sorry. What can I do to help? So
[00:27:12] it was a
[00:27:14] was a kind of compassion that I, that I didn't know existed and
[00:27:18] I didn't, you know, believe was, was was I was,
[00:27:22] I was willing or I was able to accept it and,
[00:27:25] and really incredible even today. But in 1998,
[00:27:28] for him to have that compassionate view is,
[00:27:31] is extraordinary.
[00:27:33] You're pretty honest in your book about a lot of things,
[00:27:36] including, And I hope you don't mind this
[00:27:38] characterization. Seems like you're a bit of a jerk as you
[00:27:41] went through the recovery process. Yeah,
[00:27:44] that's probably true.
[00:27:47] I was just being in charge. I was used to people telling,
[00:27:50] you know, paying attention to what I said.
[00:27:52] I had a very competitive streak. And actually when when Steve
[00:27:56] Gunn drove me up to the Friedman Centre, he said, Gore,
[00:28:00] do me a favor. Just just, it's not a competition. Like
[00:28:03] you don't have to prove you're smarter than they are.
[00:28:07] And I had some challenges with that. And I was lucky enough
[00:28:11] they basically we're going to kick me out of the treatment
[00:28:14] centre after my first two weeks because I was not behaving well.
[00:28:18] And they finally said, we're going to give you a foot
[00:28:21] you in the care of Doctor Cooney,
[00:28:23] who's the sort of chief medical officer. And he was the guy who
[00:28:27] handled the hard cases. And he absolutely leveled me. And I
[00:28:30] just he, he basically is one of the
[00:28:32] reasons I'm clean and sober.
[00:28:35] The
[00:28:37] there's a debate going on in Canada about harm reduction
[00:28:41] versus treatment now. And you're not an addiction expert,
[00:28:44] but you are an expert on your own story. Yeah. And so as you
[00:28:48] hear that, you know, should
[00:28:50] should people who are addicted be given access to clean drugs?
[00:28:54] Should they not be enforced into treatment?
[00:28:57] There are all kinds of permutations there. Yeah.
[00:29:00] What's your view of that? My view is that if you can put
[00:29:04] an addict in touch with another human being who would be
[00:29:07] available when the addict decides that they need to turn
[00:29:11] their life around, then any way you put them in
[00:29:14] touch with that person, with that outside individual is
[00:29:18] a is a benefit. So whether it's harm reduction,
[00:29:21] whether it's treatment, whether it's safe supply,
[00:29:23] to me it doesn't matter as long as you're putting the attic in
[00:29:26] touch with a human being who can be there for them when
[00:29:29] they're ready to turn their life around.
[00:29:32] In 1998, while you were going through
[00:29:35] the throes of this, I was doing a lot of stories on
[00:29:38] the Downtown East Side, and I looked now here,
[00:29:41] and it looks the same as it did back then. Yeah. Will it ever
[00:29:45] change? Oh, I used to be told that, you know,
[00:29:48] roughly 10% of the people who try to get clean and sober are
[00:29:53] successful, which is really,
[00:29:55] really depressing. And, and on its own. I understand
[00:29:59] that, you know, with some new meds that are
[00:30:02] available today, it's up to sort of fifteen
[00:30:04] 2025%, but it's still 8 percentage.
[00:30:07] And when you look at the combination of, of the,
[00:30:10] the homeless problems here, the mental health problems,
[00:30:13] the addiction problems,
[00:30:16] it's, it's I, I don't understand how we'll
[00:30:19] ever get out of it. I do know that I,
[00:30:22] I think a course solution starts with housing,
[00:30:25] because when you get people off the street and into housing,
[00:30:28] then they they regain some of their dignity and they have
[00:30:32] some hope that maybe they can turn their life around. You
[00:30:35] made a decision to write an incredibly candid book. You
[00:30:38] know, you didn't hold anything back and, and your stories out there now
[00:30:41] for for everyone to read.
[00:30:43] What do you hope the impact of your story will be?
[00:30:47] The major reason I've put it out there was to let people
[00:30:51] know that addiction can happen to anyone at anytime in their
[00:30:55] life in any, you know, level of the social spectrum.
[00:30:59] And it can happen for any number of reasons. So no one is
[00:31:03] basically guaranteed that, you know,
[00:31:05] I'll be OK. And so basically, you have to avoid the
[00:31:09] situations that I stepped into where I thought I was
[00:31:13] invincible. And you know, with the drugs out of the out
[00:31:16] there these days, you know, no one is, is,
[00:31:19] is is protected. So I wanted that message to get out there
[00:31:22] that it's not just people that you see on the street in the
[00:31:25] Downtown East Side. It, it covers the whole spectrum
[00:31:30] And, and secondly, that no matter how messed up
[00:31:33] people are, there is always hope that you
[00:31:35] can turn your life around. And it's never too late to make
[00:31:39] that decision to ask for help and accept the help. And the
[00:31:42] biggest, biggest challenge of the people
[00:31:45] have who are, who are addicts is basically
[00:31:47] asking for help. And I would refuse to ask for help. I just,
[00:31:51] you know, I was too proud. And pride can
[00:31:54] kill you, as they say. So
[00:31:56] what I did do was accept the help when it was offered,
[00:31:59] basically because I didn't think I had a choice. So I was
[00:32:02] lucky in that sense. And you're better now. Yeah,
[00:32:05] yeah,
[00:32:06] you answer that almost too quickly.
[00:32:10] I'm better now. I'm much more humble. I'm incredibly grateful
[00:32:14] for the life that I've been able to get back to. I've
[00:32:17] rekindled and and basically fixed the relationship with my
[00:32:20] daughter, which I really seriously
[00:32:23] damaged. Like when I got messed up,
[00:32:25] she was like 17 years old. And it's one of the reasons I
[00:32:28] didn't publish the book back 20 years ago,
[00:32:31] because I didn't want to have it affect her.
[00:32:35] And so. So, yeah. My. What? My life is returned, you know,
[00:32:38] to somewhat normal. I'm now a recluse on Vancouver Island. So
[00:32:41] what better place to be? Well, thank you for telling the story.
[00:32:45] It's it's a great read. And it's really nice talking to you.
[00:32:48] Yeah. It's a pleasure. Thank you.
[00:32:53] Now to some breaking news. Are you
[00:32:55] World News fast? We're gathering at one of those
[00:32:57] turning points in history, but a headline isn't the whole
[00:33:00] story. Get the facts that matter. Why is that your focus
[00:33:03] right now? From the source, you can trust the National Canada's Newscast.
[00:35:15] Welcome back. Toxic drugs are a major problem right across
[00:35:18] Canada. Support systems are being stretched as workers try
[00:35:22] to respond to a need that keeps growing. Addressing this
[00:35:25] complicated issue often requires a complex solution,
[00:35:29] and it's an uphill battle for those people working to support
[00:35:33] those living with addiction issues.
[00:35:43] Will you carry a kit? And then that way if you see
[00:35:46] somebody, so you might not need the kit
[00:35:48] yourself, but you might run into somebody
[00:35:50] that needs help, right? Some scenes from the streets of
[00:35:54] Edmonton. Like a lot of places in the country, drug use,
[00:35:57] drug addiction continues to take lives and pose challenges
[00:36:00] for policymakers. Here in Alberta,
[00:36:02] the provincial government has passed what it calls the
[00:36:05] Compassionate Care Act, and one of the things it
[00:36:08] includes is involuntary treatment for people who are
[00:36:11] addicted. That was the topic of a lively conversation
[00:36:14] on cross country checkup. We're going to play some of that for
[00:36:17] you in a moment. But first I want to chat with Chanel Twan.
[00:36:21] She's with Boyle St. and advocacy group that works with
[00:36:24] those who are addicted and in this neighborhood in Edmonton.
[00:36:28] And and before we talk to her, I want to play a piece of tape.
[00:36:32] You may remember from the National about a year and a
[00:36:35] half ago, a powerful moment where Chanel
[00:36:37] showed us pictures from the funerals and memorials she'd
[00:36:41] been to. These folks are all people that come from our
[00:36:44] community, that we love, that we have relationships that
[00:36:47] are a little longer here, that we miss. We don't have
[00:36:51] enough room to show you who all our friends are,
[00:36:53] but all of our friends are gone.
[00:37:03] I just wonder, in the last year and a half,
[00:37:05] is it getting better? Is it the same? No,
[00:37:07] absolutely. It hasn't gotten better in our city. Right now,
[00:37:11] we're seeing ambulance calls through the roof,
[00:37:13] breaking records here. Like it almost feels like weekly. The
[00:37:17] provincial government says it's doing something, you know,
[00:37:20] they call it compassionate care and their focus is on treatment
[00:37:23] and if need be, involuntary treatment.
[00:37:27] What do you think? I think we could, you know,
[00:37:29] that may, like I said, very well work for some folks.
[00:37:32] The reality is it's not gonna work for everybody. And the
[00:37:35] folks that we need to worry about are the people who are on
[00:37:38] our streets dying today. The this is where like we need
[00:37:41] supervised consumption sites that allow for innovation. We
[00:37:44] need permanent supportive housing that all house wrap
[00:37:47] around supports built-in, especially with a huge influx
[00:37:49] of people who are dealing with brain injury. But there is not,
[00:37:54] that's not a, a solution that is going to be
[00:37:56] enacted today to say, you know, we're going to take everybody
[00:38:00] into treatment and we're going to lock them up and somehow
[00:38:03] magically, there's gonna be no drug
[00:38:04] poisonings and everything's gonna be OK. The reality is
[00:38:07] people are dying today. They're dying yesterday. They're,
[00:38:10] they're, they're going to continue to
[00:38:12] die tomorrow if we don't do something. And I think it's,
[00:38:15] you know, we want to blame somebody,
[00:38:17] the government, society, whatever the reality is, we,
[00:38:20] our society. So we need to say something. We need to do
[00:38:23] something
[00:38:28] right now. All of Canada is in the grip of this crisis,
[00:38:31] and we must do all we can to help Albertans who struggle
[00:38:34] with addiction. Hi, I'm Ian Hannam. Mansion in
[00:38:36] Edmonton, the first stop of cross-country
[00:38:39] checkups. 60th anniversary tour. Let's call a thing what it is.
[00:38:42] This is, in fact, forced treatment. Well,
[00:38:44] I don't think they're involuntary. I don't think
[00:38:47] that's a good idea. I'm a recovering addict. If you're
[00:38:50] making them go, it's going to make them
[00:38:52] resentful.
[00:38:54] Scheduled and had lived experiences with addiction. Yes,
[00:38:58] I do believe that involuntary care is absolutely essential.
[00:39:02] Our question, is involuntary treatment for
[00:39:04] addiction ever justified? When, if ever, should it be mandatory?
[00:39:09] We have two guests in the studio now,
[00:39:12] Angie Stains and Brandon Shaw. Welcome to our studio. You're a
[00:39:15] nurse, Angie, and the founder of 4B Harm
[00:39:18] Reduction Society and Edmonton Outreach Group. And Brandon is
[00:39:21] your son, the co-founder of the society.
[00:39:24] Brandon, you've lived through addiction
[00:39:26] and involuntary treatment when you were young. High to both of
[00:39:30] you. Thanks for having us, Angie. Before I ask Brandon
[00:39:33] about his journey, I want you to tell me about the
[00:39:36] shift. You were working in outreach as a nurse and
[00:39:39] discovered your son on the street.
[00:39:42] Um, it was, it was a summer evening. We
[00:39:46] were out in the core here, not far. How about three blocks
[00:39:52] from here? And
[00:39:54] I was told he was in a certain area and I went to look and
[00:39:58] that's when I found him experiencing a drug poisoning.
[00:40:05] It was, it's, it's hard to talk about, Um,
[00:40:10] but I was able to revive him. I think the hardest part of that,
[00:40:14] that I was watching him walk away knowing what he was gonna,
[00:40:19] you know, not knowing what he was gonna
[00:40:23] do next or experience. Brandon, it's hard for your mom to talk
[00:40:28] about it all these years later. What's it like for you to hear
[00:40:32] that story? It's it's really hard.
[00:40:37] I remember walking away.
[00:40:40] I remember feeling very upset.
[00:40:43] I'm kind of confused
[00:40:46] and just disappointed them. And this was never in the book of
[00:40:50] cards that I had planned out, you know,
[00:40:53] And I I remember in that moment just feeling this overwhelming
[00:40:57] sense of just needing to get out of there and out of that
[00:41:02] space and and I just walked away. And you were forced into
[00:41:05] treatment when you were 16 years old?
[00:41:07] Yeah. When I was 16. Yeah. How how did that work?
[00:41:09] Didn't work out well.
[00:41:11] Sent me on firstly, it sent me on another like it
[00:41:15] sent me on a 15 years of just this massive spiral and it was
[00:41:20] something that was
[00:41:23] traumatic, traumatic, very traumatic. I didn't come
[00:41:25] out of there healed. I didn't come out of there,
[00:41:28] these skills, any skills or anything or any,
[00:41:31] any, anything like that. I, I came out of there a better
[00:41:33] drug user. I came out of there traumatized. I came out of
[00:41:36] their criminalized. They came out of their
[00:41:40] feeling like a junkie and like with no, with literally,
[00:41:44] quite literally no supports.
[00:41:47] All right, let's go to the phones now. And
[00:41:49] Emily is calling from Ottawa. We're not using her full name
[00:41:53] because there could be consequences to her future
[00:41:56] employment. Hi, Emily. Hi there. You were in
[00:41:59] involuntary care in British Columbia. What was that
[00:42:02] experience like? I mean, I would not be alive today if
[00:42:06] it weren't for that involuntary care.
[00:42:10] So, and I'm very happy to be alive.
[00:42:14] You know, I think that
[00:42:17] involuntary care is justified, but I I do not agree with
[00:42:23] government policy mandating it because I see that
[00:42:30] from where I stand. I just don't think that we have enough
[00:42:34] infrastructure in place to really tackle what needs to be
[00:42:38] tackled. Well, joining me now in CBC studio in
[00:42:41] Edmonton is Superintendent Keith Johnson. He leads the
[00:42:44] community Safety and well-being Bureau of the Edmonton Police
[00:42:48] Service. Hi. Hi. Thanks for having me today. Yeah,
[00:42:51] thanks for being in the on the program. You've been on the
[00:42:55] force for nearly three decades. How is the opioid crisis over
[00:42:59] the last few years reshaped Edmonton?
[00:43:01] It's in my almost 30 years, I can honestly say I've never
[00:43:05] really seen anything like it.
[00:43:07] And coming out of COVID and seeing the,
[00:43:10] the impact that fentanyl has had on the population has been
[00:43:14] greatly has been very, very challenging for our
[00:43:17] frontline members. And it's something where where we where
[00:43:21] we have to address it under the current laws that we that we
[00:43:25] have in both in the province and federal Criminal Code.
[00:43:29] Let me, if I get the computer in the
[00:43:31] right place, go to Gillian Whittall. Yeah.
[00:43:34] Jillian Whittall is in Oakville, ON. Hi, Jillian. Hi. I,
[00:43:38] I know you, you have a tough story,
[00:43:40] a lot of loss within your family and and your
[00:43:43] neighborhood and. And that kind of informs your view of
[00:43:47] involuntary treatment. Tell us about that.
[00:43:50] Yes, I'm very in support of it. I
[00:43:54] lost my brother in 2017
[00:43:59] to a product of fentanyl called carfentanyl. He left behind
[00:44:05] three children and a fairly large family. Last year,
[00:44:10] I lost my son, and he was 27. And, you know,
[00:44:15] he had a promising career. He was a contractor. He had his
[00:44:21] own business. He just could not deal with the addiction. He
[00:44:27] could not get into rehab. He couldn't get help. He was
[00:44:32] ashamed and yes, had a lot of guilt
[00:44:37] and our relationship was strained for a number of years.
[00:44:40] Jillian, let me, let me ask you, let me ask you this. I mean,
[00:44:44] knowing all you know about your son,
[00:44:47] do you think that involuntary treatment would have changed
[00:44:51] things?
[00:44:52] Absolutely. Absolutely. Because he would have seen a way out of
[00:44:56] his life.
[00:44:58] You know, he may not have liked, you know,
[00:45:01] sort of how the process went. But I believe that once he was
[00:45:06] there, once he got cleaned and could
[00:45:09] actually sink and use his brain and realize people loved him,
[00:45:14] he wasn't a failure. Lose the guilt, you know,
[00:45:17] through proper programming, I I believe he'd be alive.
[00:45:23] Thank you very much for sharing your story.
[00:45:31] Coming up, we continue our look at Canada's drug crisis. Stay with us.
[00:47:44] We're taking a deeper look at Canada's drug crisis. At the
[00:47:46] centre of it is a rapidly changing and increasingly
[00:47:49] dangerous supply of narcotics around the country,
[00:47:52] one that continues to challenge responders and communities
[00:47:56] alike. Nonprofit organizations are working tirelessly to
[00:47:59] develop and implement solutions that can save lives in cases of
[00:48:03] toxic drug exposure.
[00:48:06] I actually witnessed an overdose when I was in high
[00:48:08] school on public transportation and even though we were in a
[00:48:12] declared drug poisoning crisis at this time,
[00:48:15] I had no idea how to help, nor did anybody else on the
[00:48:18] train. Chloe Goodison was in Grade 10 the first time she
[00:48:21] witnessed a drug overdose while riding the bus. That was in the
[00:48:25] summer of 2018. I wish I had had the lockout. I wish I knew
[00:48:29] the signs of a drug poisoning. It's now been 10 years since
[00:48:32] the then provincial health officer, Doctor Perry Kendall
[00:48:36] declared a public health emergency due to toxic drugs.
[00:48:39] This is an extraordinary challenge to us. I believe it
[00:48:43] needs the extraordinary step of invoking additional authorities.
[00:48:48] More than 18, 000 British Columbians have
[00:48:50] died 2 date from toxic drugs. Chloe's experience on the bus
[00:48:54] that day sparked an idea for her. It was her fellow young
[00:48:59] person who got on the train and saw, you know,
[00:49:02] she quickly fell into medical distress and nobody knew how to
[00:49:06] help.
[00:49:08] We called 911 and when they got there and gave her a naloxone
[00:49:10] and it worked. It challenged so much of my own inner bias that
[00:49:14] drug use and overdose were only happening on the Downtown East
[00:49:18] Side or in Surrey Central or downtown spaces. As an
[00:49:21] undergrad at SFU, she started an organization
[00:49:24] called Naloxone. They run workshops across BC to help
[00:49:28] people recognize and prevent overdoses. I noticed a real gap
[00:49:32] of knowledge in fellow young people. This is a public health
[00:49:35] crisis and we all need to be
[00:49:37] worked with the tools to respond in order to keep each
[00:49:41] other alive. Mark Dahl is a paramedic based in Richmond,
[00:49:46] BC. He also helps facilitate naloxone homes workshops. He
[00:49:50] typically starts off by telling people how to recognize the
[00:49:55] signs of an overdose. 1 is low respirations to is pale cool
[00:49:59] skin previous unresponsiveness for with be your constricted
[00:50:04] pupils then should call 911 and admission.
[00:50:08] So according to Mark, once you confirm that someone
[00:50:11] is overdosing, there's a few steps you should
[00:50:14] immediately take using the naloxone kit. There's two
[00:50:17] different kinds of naloxone kits. The older,
[00:50:20] more common one is the injectable. First you call 911
[00:50:24] they can help you with the steps. Then put the medical
[00:50:28] gloves on that come in the case. Then you open up the syringe
[00:50:32] package, take the medication out of the
[00:50:34] plastic bottle, crack open the medication
[00:50:37] ampule with your hand,
[00:50:39] remove the cap on the syringe and get the medication into it.
[00:50:43] Poor plancher up towards the sky. That will drop the
[00:50:46] medication. It's kind of flip that needle up towards the sky.
[00:50:50] There, slowly push the plunger up so
[00:50:52] that we get the air out. Next, sterilize the surface. Mark
[00:50:56] uses an orange to demonstrate, and once that's ready,
[00:50:59] insert a medication and at a 90° angle. And then now you
[00:51:02] want to depress the plunger all the way down and keep going
[00:51:06] until you hear that spring pop.
[00:51:08] Keep going, keep going, keep going,
[00:51:10] keep going. And now you've noticed that the needle has to
[00:51:14] retract back into the syringe and now it's safe for you to to
[00:51:18] the needle is back in here, correct?
[00:51:20] Yeah. It'll take 3 to 5 minutes to kick in. While all of this
[00:51:24] is happening, ideally someone is also doing
[00:51:27] mouth to mouth with the face shield that comes in the
[00:51:30] naloxone kit. The lack of oxygen and lack lack of
[00:51:33] breathing is what's going to how this opioid or what was
[00:51:37] going to kill
[00:51:39] nasal naloxone kit is the newer option and a lot easier to use.
[00:51:43] So this goes into the patient's nostril, correct?
[00:51:47] And then you just push this and that's it, that's it,
[00:51:54] cool, there you go. Once it's
[00:51:56] administered, it takes a few minutes to have
[00:51:59] effect. Naloxone also adapts their trainings for non-english
[00:52:03] speaking communities. It's called the Access for all
[00:52:07] program. Nick and Raj help facilitate it. If we can win
[00:52:10] the trust of community leaders, community members are more
[00:52:14] likely to be accepting of us. So typically that looks like
[00:52:18] reaching out to leaders within local temples,
[00:52:21] cultural centres
[00:52:23] and they are willing to invite us into their spaces. We've had
[00:52:26] experiences with youth coming to us and saying that it was
[00:52:29] something that helped prompt the conversation with their
[00:52:32] families at the dinner tables and really flesh out
[00:52:36] sort of important conversations related to substance use and
[00:52:40] and the opioid drug crisis. I spoke to a young mother who
[00:52:44] mentioned that her nephew actually died of an overdose
[00:52:47] since she was a young South Asian mother that I encountered
[00:52:51] in a local temple in Surrey. And she mentioned that just
[00:52:55] providing this education felt like a relief for her because
[00:52:58] she didn't know the signs of an overdose until after her loved
[00:53:02] one died. After 10 years of the emergency and nearly 20 000
[00:53:06] vets, Chloe Goodison wants as many
[00:53:08] British Columbians as possible to know how to use naloxone.
[00:53:11] This could be your brother, This could be your sister. This
[00:53:14] could be your mom. Like it doesn't matter who it is,
[00:53:16] this is a this is a human
[00:53:18] life that is, you know, needs your help. And if you
[00:53:21] have naloxone, you're not gonna get in trouble
[00:53:24] for using it. Find someone around you carrying a lock and
[00:53:27] get and you can get a life saving,
[00:53:29] almost instantaneous medication into somebody's body that will
[00:53:32] keep them alive.
[00:53:35] We've got more stories coming up after the break.
[00:55:46] Welcome back, I'm Michelle Gaub. With a rise
[00:55:49] in the supply of toxic drugs, there is an urgency to protect
[00:55:53] people from dangerous St. drugs and attempts are underway to
[00:55:56] try to introduce solutions to tackle the problem.
[00:56:03] It's biometric, so it's reading the blood
[00:56:05] vessels in your hand with the scan of a palm. Medications
[00:56:09] dispensed this machine, part of Main Street projects
[00:56:13] efforts to protect people from dangerous St. drugs. Brianna
[00:56:17] Supremes, the harm reduction nurse for
[00:56:20] their safe supply program. During our intake process,
[00:56:24] we actually ask everyone
[00:56:26] do they have fear of encountering a toxic supply or
[00:56:30] encountering A substance that could be fatal, and
[00:56:34] every person says yes. The program provides a select group
[00:56:37] of people primarily addicted to opioids,
[00:56:40] a prescribed daily amount of the opioid hydromorphone. Dr.
[00:56:43] Shelley Turner is the medical director. She says participants
[00:56:47] go through an intake process, then get a prescription to meet
[00:56:50] their needs. What we're trying to do is to give them enough
[00:56:54] that they need to function day-to-day so that they're not
[00:56:57] going to have withdrawal. Do some people need to get the
[00:57:00] effects that they want For sure. And what some people are
[00:57:04] dealing with chronic pain, chronic noncancer pain and
[00:57:08] significant health issues. And so not only now you're going to
[00:57:12] deal with withdrawal, but now you've got to deal with
[00:57:16] pain on top of that. So the complexity is there and that's
[00:57:20] why we see them every day. Manitoba's Office of the Chief
[00:57:24] Medical Examiner says of the 292 drug related deaths in the
[00:57:28] first nine months of last year, 159 involved opioids. Turner
[00:57:32] says this program aims to prevent deaths
[00:57:35] and is blunt about why she believes in the work they're
[00:57:38] doing here. You can't treat dead people,
[00:57:45] you have to give people a chance and if we turn people
[00:57:48] away, people are going to die. The
[00:57:50] supply is toxic. The Community Supported Opioid Access Program,
[00:57:54] as Main Street Project calls it, has been operating for more
[00:57:58] than a year and a half. The team says there's five
[00:58:02] participants, the maximum they've had at once.
[00:58:05] There's been eight in total. People are also connected with
[00:58:08] WRAP around supports like mental health or primary care.
[00:58:12] Main St.
[00:58:14] Projects Director of Community Initiatives Karen Meyerson says
[00:58:17] they're meeting people where they're at and helping them
[00:58:21] achieve stability. When folks are sort of spending a lot of
[00:58:25] time chasing or trying to find that supply that is also toxic,
[00:58:29] it causes a lot of different things in their lives with that
[00:58:34] can have negative effects. She says she's seen the benefits
[00:58:38] the programs had on people. We've seen someone reconnect
[00:58:42] with family and
[00:58:43] and be with their children much more often. We've had a couple
[00:58:47] people return to work that haven't been working for a
[00:58:50] really long time. We've had folks that have been housed. If
[00:58:54] a participant wants to stop using substances,
[00:58:57] she says they'd support those efforts. Brianna Sukhum,
[00:59:00] the nurse with the program, calls it a game changer for
[00:59:04] people. I think
[00:59:06] the big thing is it connects people back to
[00:59:11] their family and their loved ones and they can work on
[00:59:14] themselves. Turner says they only prescribe hydromorphone.
[00:59:17] In the future, she wants the program to expand
[00:59:20] to other drugs like fentanyl. Really,
[00:59:22] what we're trying to do is to prevent Manitobans from dying.
[00:59:28] I don't want anymore Manitobans to die. I don't want anymore
[00:59:32] Canadians to die. I lost my cousin in 2022 to an overdose.
[00:59:38] I think if everyone Manitoba put their hand up of who
[00:59:41] they've lost, it would be shocking. Main
[00:59:44] Street Project says funding for the program initially came from
[00:59:48] a federal grant through a British Columbia program.
[00:59:51] Foundation funding and private donor support now cover costs
[00:59:55] including medication not funded through health benefits. Alana
[00:59:58] Cole, CBC News, Winnipeg.
[01:00:06] Thanks for joining us. We've reached the end of our look at
[01:00:08] the drug crisis in Canada. For more CBC reporting on the drug
[01:00:12] crisis, visit us on cbc.ca or check out the GEM app.
[01:00:27] I'm Adrian Arceneaux, chief correspondent for CBC News. Here's what's making news right now.
[01:00:34] HOMES. >> Eli: THANK YOU, LINDA. >> Eli: THANK YOU, LINDA. >> Linda: YOU'RE WELCOME.
[01:00:37] >> Linda: YOU'RE WELCOME. >> Eli: TURNING NOW TO TRADE >> Eli: TURNING NOW TO TRADE NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN CANADA AND NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN CANADA AND THE U.S.
[01:00:41] THE U.S. THE TWO COUNTRIES ARE STILL FAR THE TWO COUNTRIES ARE STILL FAR APART ON A TARIFF DEAL AS THE
[01:00:44] APART ON A TARIFF DEAL AS THE CLOCK TICKS DOWN TO NEXT WEEK'S
[01:00:47] CLOCK TICKS DOWN TO NEXT WEEK'S DEADLINE FOR A SWEEPING ROUND OF DEADLINE FOR A SWEEPING ROUND OF TARIFFS.
[01:00:50] TARIFFS. WASHINGTON SAYS IT'S WILLING TO WASHINGTON SAYS IT'S WILLING TO PULL BACK ON AUTO TARIFFS, BUT
[01:00:53] PULL BACK ON AUTO TARIFFS, BUT IT'S STILL DEMANDING IT'S STILL DEMANDING CONCESSIONS.
[01:00:56] CONCESSIONS. THE MESSAGE FROM U.S. TRADE