Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adel Ahmed

Moms Stop the Harm

Kamloops group presses for solutions on 7th anniversary of public health emergency declaration

Apr 14, 2023 | 5:17 PM

KAMLOOPS — On this day seven years ago, B.C.’s former chief medical health officer Dr. Perry Kendall declared a public health emergency in response to drug-related deaths across the province. The number of deaths has only increased since that time.

A local group, Moms Stop the Harm, was first formed back in 2016. It is led by Sandra Tully, who lost her son Ryan to a fentanyl overdose three months before the declaration.

“I’ve learned a lot of compassion and empathy for people who are in a different stage in their lives than I am,” Tully told CFJC Today. “I think the general public could learn from that and I would hope that days like this, when people are interested and they come up and hear our stories — that makes a difference for them,”

As a symbol of grief, Moms Stop the Harm wore black arm bands Friday (April 14). The purpose is to not only make a silent statement, but to remember the lives lost and to help raise awareness.

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Troylana Manson lost her son Aaron to an overdose nearly two years ago. She believes the amount of people using drugs has not increased, but the supply of toxic drugs has.

“The toxic supply is so bad that people are either dying or overdosing but surviving the overdose,” Manson told CFJC Today.

According to the province, a record 90 drug related deaths occurred in Kamloops in 2022, breaking the previous record of 77, reported for 2021.

Roseanne Nelson’s son Kerry is one of the 90, dying of an overdose last November — consuming a drug that was not what he initially asked for.

“That’s what one of the problems is now,” Nelson said. “Nobody really knows what they’re getting and they think it’s a certain thing or a certain dose and it isn’t and then it’s too late.”

That’s where Moms Stop the Harm is advocating for a change, suggesting that normalizing regulated use is a solution to decrease the deaths surrounding drug use.

“You want to maybe bring them somewhere where they can get a supply that is safer for them to use. At the same time, they are accessing services to help them if they have an addiction issue.” said Manson.

For Tully, she’s learned a lot since her son’s passing.

“Everybody has used a substance at one point or another — a glass of wine or a cigarette. What we have to do is we have to make those regulated substances so that people don’t die and then we can look at assistance if they are in an addiction situation and they can get into recovery from there.”