Brandon Jansen was a 20-year-old at a substance abuse centre in Powell River in March of 2016 when he died of a “mixed opioid drug overdose,” according to the B.C. Coroner’s office.
That led to an inquest jury, which created 21 recommendations that were released last week. Yes, they did include some suggestions for the Sunshine Coast Health Authority, like “ensure all baggage is searched on entering the facility” and “consider greater security measures for monitoring clients and visitors.”
The recommendations for the wider community and health professionals are all helpful and important, but once again we wonder what, if anything, is being considered in relation to smaller communities like Parksville Qualicum Beach, ones that don’t have hospitals and treatment centres like the ones in bigger centres.
There are about 50,000 people from Nanoose Bay to Deep Bay. We have our drug problems and sadly we’ve had our overdose deaths.
One of the jury’s recommendations last week was to “ensure free opioid maintenance drugs in the community for people leaving correction centres.”
This may include methadone and pharmacies here dispense that product daily. But we’re not confident the resources are available here to help (monitor?) people who are leaving correction centres, which again we don’t have in Parksville Qualicum Beach.
Another recommendation: “review the need for increasing the number of supervised consumption sites rather than overdose prevention sites.”
Do local residents and/or politicians have an appetite for supervised drug sites in Parksville Qualicum Beach? We think not.
While it’s easy to criticize the government and health authorities if you believe they are focusing all their energies on helping the big centres deal with illegal drug issues, we sense many if not most residents of this region would rather have both the illegal drug users and any supervised consumption sites restricted to Nanaimo or Victoria.
Yes, there are more services in the big centres. But we have our issues here too, and we would like to see the health authorities and the provincial government provide services, to scale, for smaller communities like Parksville Qualicum Beach. Ignoring the issues of the smaller centres could lead to deaths, and a life lost in Errington or Parksville is just as sad as one lost in Victoria.
— Editorial by John Harding
