Harm reduction has failed us, time to help people recover

Written By Gwen O'Mahony
Published

“Radical harm reduction activists have removed hope from the equation, replacing treatment, recovery, and a real future, with a system that enables ongoing use.”

–Gwen O’Mahony


The opioid crisis in British Columbia has claimed far too many lives, but the loss of my sister hurt me the most. Shortly after I began as a BC Conservative candidate in the provincial election last year, my sister, Tina, overdosed. The toxicology report revealed a concoction of both physician-prescribed and street drugs, but we knew it was the fentanyl that killed her. 

Losing a loved one is an unimaginable pain. With an overdose, it’s not just the finality of death that’s heartbreaking, but the years of soul-crushing addiction that preceded it.

Three years younger than me, Tina was my first playmate. When we played Barbie dolls together, she always called them “Sister,” a title she lovingly assigned to her dolls and to me. I spent hours trying to help her to come up with a real name for her Barbie. She, with her innocent cherub face and head full of messy blonde curls, would consider my suggestions and pause as if she was trying to land on a proper name, only to respond, “Her name is Sister!” So, Sister it was, for each Barbie. And now, the term feels hollow without her.

Gwen O’Mahony with her impossibly cute little sister, Tina. [Photo supplied]

Continuing my candidacy after Tina’s death was a struggle, but I knew I had to. It meant pushing aside my grief to focus on the relentless demands of campaigning. I buried most of the pain, but anger? Anger became my driving force. It made me bolder, more relentless than I’d ever been in any past campaign. 

Earlier, my sister warned me about the NDP’s decision to decriminalize drugs. “They’re trying to kill us, Gwen,” she said. People battling addiction understand acutely the dangers of erasing boundaries.

A few months later, my biggest fear came true. 

But her words stayed with me. And that moment, our conversation, pushed me to fight harder – knocking on doors, asking for donations, speaking to anyone who would listen about the need to end these harmful policies and bring in programs that help people regain their lives.

Harm reduction, an ever-expanding industry

Tens of thousands of families have lost people they love to drug overdoses in the past 8 years, 14,582 in B.C. alone. Billions of dollars have been spent in Canada, and untold hundreds of millions in B.C. since a public emergency was declared by our provincial health officer in 2016. 

The majority of funding has supported the exponential growth of harm reduction services. Yet those policies and programs, while well-intentioned, continue to coincide with the highest overdose death rates in the province’s history. 

The push to decriminalize hard drugs, under the misguided belief that destigmatizing drug use will help save lives, only made matters worse. Public drug use surged, with fentanyl users smoking openly in parks, parking lots, and even in front of schools and businesses. Despite Premier David Eby’s subsequent attempt to walk back decriminalization, the genie is out of the bottle. 

The harm reduction industry is now booming. 

New organizations are springing up across the province, competing for government funds to manage everything from low barrier supportive housing to drug paraphernalia giveaways in vending machines. 

Drugs are cheap, recovery is discouraged

On the surface, expanding harm reduction providers may seem compassionate, but a closer look reveals a troubling dilemma: addiction is the basis of their business model. Therefore, there is little motivation to encourage individuals to move toward sobriety. In fact, some organizations even discourage it. 

One support worker I spoke to during the provincial election campaign shared how she was reprimanded for posting a notice with the schedule of local Narcotics Anonymous meetings in a supportive housing unit. When she suggested hosting meetings on site to help residents overcome their addictions, she was told that such initiatives were outside the organization’s mandate and could be stigmatizing. 

This reluctance to support treatment options speaks volumes about the industry’s priorities –preserving its own growth rather than helping individuals achieve lasting recovery.

Some harm reduction organizations, such as DULF (Drug Users Liberation Front), which received hundreds of thousands of dollars in provincial government funding, have found themselves embroiled in scandals, under the complicit eye of government.

Organizations, including DULF, were tasked with providing services to those struggling with addiction, but have been implicated in unethical practices, such as using public funds to purchase illicit drugs and turning a blind eye to peer support workers who sell street drugs to the same individuals the programs are meant to serve.  

The disturbing and dangerous elements in B.C.’s harm reduction programs leave many taxpayers wondering who these organizations are serving and how exactly it is that they’re helping. 

‘Safe supply’ isn’t safe

Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s provincial health officer, advocates for the expansion of the “safer supply” program, which prescribes severely addictive opioid pills, mainly Dilaudid – referred to as “dillies” on the street – to individuals struggling with addiction. However, addictions specialists report these heavily prescribed pills are often sold by patients to purchase more potent street drugs, exacerbating the cycle of addiction and feeding organized crime.

Some of these diverted dillies are creating new addictions, particularly in youth who mistakenly think these prescription drugs are “safe.” Prescription opioids have long been known as a gateway to street drugs. That’s how my sister’s addiction started, with the opioid Percocet to treat back pain.

Research has shown that youth who consume diverted opioid prescription drugs are much more likely to move on to stronger illicit drugs, such as heroin and fentanyl. Canadian physicians have already spoken of youth patients who became addicted to fentanyl after developing a dependency on Dilaudid pills they purchased illegally. The easy availability and low cost of dillies is especially dangerous. In B.C., dillies are now cheaper than alcohol, with pills sold as cheap as a dollar per pill. 

Enabling addiction isn’t the answer

The arguments in favour of harm reduction typically centre around saving lives. But as someone who lost her sister to an overdose, I can tell you that safe supply and harm reduction – treating addiction with more drugs and an uncritical acceptance of drug use – is not the answer. 

Treatment with the goal of sobriety saves lives. The key to recovery is not more drugs; it’s addressing the root causes of addiction and treating them, for as long as it takes the person to achieve a stable state of recovery.

True harm reduction must go beyond the addict to include families and communities. It’s the family and friends who must help them pick up the pieces each time they resurface, and it’s the family who can make the difference in helping them be successful in their recovery.

The addictions services offered have to be safe for everyone. The risk of second-hand smoke inhalation, discarded needles, and used crack pipes pose a serious health hazard to the public. I’ve seen addicts wandering around, pockets overflowing with crack pipes and glass inhalation tubes, because they know they can obtain more paraphernalia easily. Why care for your equipment when more will just be handed out? 

The consequences are terrifying. In the last couple of years, more and more people, usually children, have accidentally stepped on discarded needles and bubble pipes. I witnessed a young child in open-toed sandals kick a discarded crack pipe that had been used, minutes earlier, by a man who was temporarily rendered unconscious from the potency of the drugs. 

What if the drug residue had harmed the young boy or the shattered crack pipe had pierced his skin? In Nanaimo, two addicts attacked a city worker with syringes in a public park bathroom, stabbing him over a hundred times. This is the rarely discuss reality of unregulated, over-supplied harm reduction.

Normalizing drug use stigmatizes users

Another tragedy is the demoralization of communities. 

The push to normalize public drug use and accept or ignore maladaptive behaviors has eroded our sense of neighbourhood safety. Paramedics, healthcare workers, and ordinary citizens are left to deal with the fallout. 

We have become desensitized to bodies lying on our city sidewalks. What once would have startled us into calling for help – a person overdosed or passed out in the street – is now someone to be stepped around or feared, lest they pose a risk of attack. 

Ironically, the desire to destigmatize drug use has an opposite, stigmatizing effect, particularly on the drug users living in our streets. 

Radical harm reduction activists have also caused other damage: they have removed hope from the equation; replacing treatment, recovery, and a real future with a system that enables ongoing use as “personal agency,” where addiction becomes a chronic condition without an end in sight. 

I’ve spoken to countless families who feel the same sense of frustration. We’ve been at the front lines of this crisis, watching our loved ones struggle, setting boundaries, and trying to encourage recovery. But the system in B.C. has become an easy target for those wanting to take advantage; it provides unconditional resources with little to no consequences when laws are broken. 

That’s not helping anyone.

Recovery is possible

Harm reduction policies in B.C., while well-meaning, have failed us. 

It’s time to rethink how we treat addiction. We must shift the focus away from enabling and towards real recovery – where sobriety is possible, families are supported, and communities are safe. 

This is the vision we must strive for. 

For my sister, for everyone suffering from addiction, and for the future of our province.