Amy – Produced by Health Canada: Canada.ca/Opioids
Narrator:
In Plain Sight is a Health Canada audio series that explores the personal stories of people affected by the opioid crisis.
The most recent data shows that every day approximately 12 people die from opioid overdoses in Canada.
We see this on the news. We know that it’s happening. We know that it’s real. Yet, we tell ourselves that it couldn’t happen to the people we know, the people we work with, the people we love. That it couldn’t happen to us.
The reality is, the opioid crisis is happening right before our eyes, in plain sight, and it can affect anyone. There are thousands of stories waiting to be heard.
Josh had a great sense of humour and loved playing sports. He went to a party one night and everything changed. His sister, Amy, shares his story…
Amy:
We grew up in a small town in Nova Scotia. I’m one of four siblings. I’m the oldest. Josh is, the middle child. We had a very good childhood – very typical, middle class. We all were involved in different sports and had our own interests. I was in gymnastics and volleyball, Joshua loved hockey, skateboarding and snowboarding, played sports throughout school. We were all very close.
Josh always was a risk-taker. And he had a fabulous sense of humour. He was always the class clown and the person that could make people laugh. He also enjoyed volunteering at my grandmother’s daycare. He would spend summers there helping her out, and taking part in activities, with the other kids. He really enjoyed, connecting with younger people, too, as he got older. And kids loved him because he did have such a great sense of humour and was very playful and even into his twenties was always the kid at heart.
When he left school, he went out to Alberta. He was working out west as an arbourist. He loved doing that. That was something that, he felt a sense of accomplishment in… getting the training and getting promoted. And that’s kind of when our lives changed, forever.
At first it was great news. We had heard Josh had got a promotion in Nova Scotia to move back, home where all our family is and we were all thrilled. And he was pretty proud of himself, too, because he had the ability to hire some of his friends when he came back to Nova Scotia from Alberta. And he thought that was pretty cool. He was 21 and just a zest for life, starting out on this new adventure. Purchased a new car coming home, I can remember he was so proud of it, always shining it up. Looking for a new apartment. Just a lot of things to look forward to.
And on March 19th he’d been home maybe two months, maybe not even that long. I’m not quite sure, but it was still relatively new. He was staying with someone and getting all these things in place, like apartments, buying furniture, things like this.
It was a Friday night. He had finished work that day. He was supposed to, meet me at a cottage, a family cottage, which was about an hour away from where we lived. And he called and said, “I’m just so tired, Amy, I’m sorry. Work was really long today. I need to pick out this furniture to be sent to the new apartment and I’m just too wiped to drive out there. There’s always next time.” And those were actually the last words I ever heard from my brother, is “there’s always next time” which is so ironic, because unfortunately there wasn’t.
We had just a regular night at the cottage. I had no sense that anything was not the norm. I woke up that morning, packed up our stuff, headed back to our hometown. I took my daughter swimming. We were in the pool, having fun. Again, no sense that anything’s wrong. When I arrived home, I was getting her changed out of her bathing suit and my phone just was ringing incessantly. And I could start hearing notifications go off. And I was actually getting quite irritated — I’m trying to get a wet bathing suit off a toddler and I’m thinking, “what is so important?” like, you know, who is this?
So, I root through my swim bag, get out my phone, answer the call and it’s my younger sister. And just the tone in her voice, I knew something was… was terribly wrong. She asked me if I was alone. I said, well, I have Chloe with me, my daughter. And she said, “is anyone else there with you?” and I’m like, thinking why, why does that matter? And she said something happened. I said, “Just tell me, just tell me, Mallory.” And that’s when I found out.
She said, “Josh went to sleep last night, and he never woke up.” And just a wave of shock and… I can’t even explain. I’ve never had those emotions before in my life until that day. And not knowing what could cause something like this to happen. My brother was an extremely healthy, happy, 21-year-old man. I just couldn’t understand. How does he go to sleep and not wake up?
He had had spleen issues the year prior, so we immediately thought, well maybe his spleen ruptured in his sleep and nobody, you know, nobody was with him. We waited for the medical examiner a few days later to give us a call and that’s when we realized that Josh was perfectly healthy. His cause of death had nothing to do with anything physical. And that’s when she asked us if substances might have been involved.
We were kind of taken aback by this. We were expecting answers that day, not more questions and then she said we’d have to wait for a toxicology report. So that’s when my family started to call people who he was with that night, friends, trying to find out what he was up to, and if drugs could have been involved.
And then quickly we found out that he had attended a party with a group of friends. It was a birthday celebration. And the prescription painkiller hydromorphone was being experimented with and offered to people and he, he tried it and that ended up being the cause of death, we found out later in the toxicology. We had to wait a long time for those answers, but we found through friends and we pretty much knew, after speaking to people that that was very likely the cause. And it was absolutely shocking.
I had no idea that experimenting with a prescription painkiller, which is prescribed by a doctor could have such permanent, irreversible damage. I always thought that people who were harmed by substance use developed addictions, and there was this long period of time where they would struggle, and family could reach out and help them and get them into treatment.
I never dreamed that one night I’d be talking to my brother, everything’s happy, all is great in the world, and the next morning I wake up and he’s gone. Because of one, one pill. It definitely evoked feelings of helplessness because, looking back, I don’t really know what we could have done except, now — this happened in 2011 — so in 2011 there was no naloxone available without prescription. There was very little awareness about opioids. There was no Good Samaritan Law. So these are the types of things that I think could have impacted that situation that weren’t accessible to people and people weren’t aware of seven years ago.
Narrator:
Devastated by her brother’s tragic and unexpected death, Amy found herself stepping into an advocacy role in the hopes of broadening awareness of how the opioid crisis could affect any one of us.
Amy:
It was nine days after Joshua passed when I started my advocacy. I didn’t really plan on starting advocacy, I just knew that if this could happen to my family and my brother and I had no anticipation that this was even a possibility, that there was a lot of other people in the world in the same position and they needed to be made aware. And we needed to act on this issue. Because my family was not aware until my brother passed away and all I want to do is prevent other people from learning about the crisis in that way — through prevention, education. There’s lots of things we can be doing to prevent these tragedies, because they are preventable deaths.
There is no magic bullet, but first of all we need to reduce demand. We need to save the lives of those who are currently at risk and using, through safe consumption sites, accessible naloxone, accessible medication-assisted treatment. We need to treat the people that are currently using and save their lives, and while doing that we can be preventing unnecessary exposure to opioids through more cautious prescribing, education, awareness. We need to be working on both sides of the crisis to make a meaningful impact and save as many lives as possible.
Because, I don’t know how many times I’ve heard the narrative of as well – I know illicit fentanyl is ravaging our country right now. But I don’t know how many stories I’ve heard where people were first exposed to opioids through prescription, thinking they’re safer, they’re cleaner — which they are, in a sense, they’re definitely safer than illicit fentanyl — but, a lot of people are initially exposed in that way and then once they develop tolerance or a substance use disorder, it can often then lead to seeking stronger alternatives, cheaper alternatives, if prescription pharmaceuticals aren’t readily available or, or not strong enough.
So, we need to be working on both sides. We can’t arrest our way out of this issue, too. I think decriminalization of personal use would be very helpful. It would help people engage in treatment. Because when you criminalize people who use drugs, then they do it… they hide it. They do it in silence.
Because lots of people, even like my brother, maybe if he lived that night and continued using opioids and developed a substance use disorder and needed to seek help, when you criminalize drug use, you know with his job, with his everything else, that you have so much to lose because you’re admitting to breaking the law by saying that you use drugs. So, I think it would be very helpful for people, if they could seek out help without the fear of being criminalized. Those are some things I think that would be very useful.
The criminalization too is so related to stigma. I never experienced stigma in my life until my brother passed away from a drug-related death. I never knew what that felt like, but I quickly learned.
When I began my advocacy and started to speak out publicly, I had to learn very quickly not to read the comment section because the hatred towards people who use drugs, in society, and the misunderstanding that these people are “less-than” is very hurtful and it’s very prevalent. I think that’s one of our biggest barriers to implementing some of these interventions, is the idea that substance use is a moral issue, not a health issue. And until we can change society’s thinking in that regard it’s going to be very hard to implement some of these interventions or get support, get political will, get public support for these interventions. And I think that that’s also what’s allowed this crisis to perpetuate.
Seven years ago, when my brother passed away –most, opioid-related deaths were prescription-related. And those numbers were still very high, like hundreds of people in Alberta dying per year. Numbers have stayed constant in Nova Scotia. Even in Ontario, hundreds of people a year dying from opioid-related deaths as far back as seven years ago. And, but nobody knew it was really going on and nobody really seemed to care. And I think that had a lot to do with stigma. These are people that, you know, are doing it to themselves. This is not really an issue that helps people in politics or, you know, people that have special interests to pursue. But now that we created such a large opioid-dependent population, organized crime has entered and they’re willing to feed that with illicit fentanyl which is just devastating.
It really didn’t need to get to this point, but the stigma around the issue allowed it to kind of, grow in silence and it perpetuated it without people being even aware that this was happening until it got to such, large, devastating proportions.
I think it’s helpful for people to share their stories and bring a face to the issue. And sadly, I always say this is a club you don’t want to join, but so many people have, unfortunately. And, I see much more awareness now of people sharing their stories than seven years ago when my brother passed. And I do think that that is very helpful to actually see the faces of the people, hear from the families that are being affected, the family voice and, even the people that are currently using, people who use drugs, they have a voice. And their voices matter. So, people with lived experience have an important part, to play in this issue and they need a seat at the table. In hearing our voices, in seeing our faces, will hopefully reduce stigma.
Narrator:
Problematic opioid use is devastating Canadian lives. The numbers are tragic and staggering. These are the stories behind the numbers. This crisis has a face. It is the face of a friend; a co-worker; a family member. Meeting those eyes, and seeing our own reflection is the first step toward ending the stigma that often prevents people who use drugs from receiving help. To learn more about the opioid crisis, visit Canada.ca/Opioids.
This audio series is a production of Health Canada. The opinions expressed and language used by individuals on this program are those of the individuals and not those of Health Canada. Health Canada has not validated the accuracy of any statements made by the individuals on this program. Reproduction of this material, in whole or in part, for non-commercial purposes is permitted under the standard Terms of Use for Government of Canada digital content.
