Recognizing International Overdose Awareness Day In Williams Lake

On International Overdose Awareness Day, people around the world remember those who lost their lives to the toxic drug crisis.

Today an event is going on in Boitanio Park in Williams Lake to shed some light on it and to raise awareness and reduce the stigma of substance use.

Organizer Laurel White, Team Lead for the Williams Lake Action Team working towards reducing the overdose crisis, says we’ve been in a Public Health Emergency since April 2016 and it’s time for people to come together and recognize the more than ten thousand people that have been lost to toxic drugs.

“It’s time to get together and have some change, to get these drug policies changed so people can have better access to treatment, better access to housing, services, and just reminding people that people using substances, experiencing homelessness, anything like that, are still people. They still deserve to be loved and treated like a human,” White said.

White added that just because someone uses substances does not mean they forfeit their human rights.

“So we really wanted to gather together to honor and remember all of the people. Give people a chance to speak about their loved ones, talk about them and remember the amazing person that they were even though we lost them to an overdose,” White said.

The International Overdose Awareness Day event will be going on in Boitanio Park in Williams Lake until 3:30 this afternoon.