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Editorial: Don’t discount avoiding drugs

There’s a simple — if unrealistic — solution to B.C.’s overdose epidemic: Don’t do drugs. We don’t advocate that governments make abstinence the focus of efforts to limit the rising drug-overdose toll (914 deaths in 2016; 142 in December alone).

There’s a simple — if unrealistic — solution to B.C.’s overdose epidemic: Don’t do drugs. We don’t advocate that governments make abstinence the focus of efforts to limit the rising drug-overdose toll (914 deaths in 2016; 142 in December alone). That would be dangerously naïve. Nevertheless, it should not be ignored that this epidemic, unlike flu or measles, is happening among those who choose to take drugs.

For some, the time for choosing has passed, and B.C. chief coroner Lisa LaPointe says those who are drug-dependent should consume drugs only in the presence of someone trained to use the opioid antidote naloxone.

“All others are strongly advised to avoid experimentation and casual use of illicit drugs,” she said. “The risks are simply unmanageable.”

That risk extends to nearly all illicit drugs, because it’s not just heroin that is contaminated with the powerful opioid fentanyl, which is to blame for at least 60 per cent of the overdose deaths.

“Fentanyl is frequently being found in combination with cocaine and methamphetamines, which are not opioids,” said LaPointe.

Those hundreds of deaths are heartbreaking and frightening, especially considering that the numbers continue to rise.

People use illicit drugs for a variety of reasons. Some are looking for a thrill, a high. Some live with so much pain, misery and hopelessness, they see no other way to find relief.

But no thrill is worth the risk of dying. Teens will experiment, but there is no law of nature that says they must experiment with drugs.

No drug can guarantee happiness, beyond momentary euphoria and relief, while addiction is a guarantee that life will only get more miserable and hopeless, along with the very real possibility that a premature death awaits.

That’s the message that needs to be constantly repeated, along with long-term programs and measures that address poverty, mental illness and other factors that lead to drug use. We should avoid a casual attitude toward consumption of illicit drugs or a fatalistic belief that it’s inevitable.

We must put more effort into showing people — especially the young — that there is always a better way.

But to change lives, first we need to save lives. Those in the throes of addiction don’t need sermons, they need lifesaving help. Overdose-prevention sites and treatment beds with sufficient after-treatment support are necessary responses to this dire emergency, and B.C. is ramping up its efforts to deal with the crisis.

We need more than emergency responses, though — we will be forever running around trying to put out brush fires if we don’t address the conditions causing the fires. Illicit-drug use is deeply entrenched in society, LaPointe noted, and a long-term strategy of education, treatment, prevention and harm reduction is required.

It’s a complicated and difficult issue, and complex solutions are likely needed, but amid all the complexity, we should not lose sight of a basic fact: Those who do not take illicit drugs are in no danger of dying from an overdose.

Difficult though it will be, keeping people off the route to addiction is better than patching up ruined lives and ruined bodies down the road.