Informal event creates discussions surrounding toxic drug crisis

Prince hopes that she and the other peers can be mediators between the greater community and those who struggle with poverty and addiction, so the opportunity to speak casually with politicians, law enforcement, and more, was a welcome one. Prince, among her fellow peers, also spoke on what works and doesn’t work when it comes to the healing journey.

“I don’t get paid to go check on my friends or go and check to see if someone’s still breathing. I do it because I know what it’s like. […] Harm reduction and safer supply has saved my life,” Prince said.

“They have really rich histories and insights and ideas into how even to solve a lot of these situations and crises that we’re facing today in our society,” Christensen-Sweeney added.

Among other things, one big message Prince hoped to share was surrounding the importance of naloxone. She took the training in 2014 shortly after her younger brother passed away, and she hopes if more people carry naloxone and are trained in how to use it, that it could save lives.

“I believe there should be no reason why so many people have passed away,” Prince said.

When discussing topics like the toxic drug crisis, it can often seem like an issue that is so impossibly large, so Christensen-Sweeny says events like this really help bring the human side of the issue to the forefront, and through that, healthy and open conversations can help create solutions.

“When you get to know an individual and their story and their history and their experience, it really helps you to understand where it is that they are in life at that point in time,” Christensen-Sweeney.

Two of these events were held Friday morning, with one from 9:00-10:00 a.m., and the other from 10:30-11:30 a.m.

by Tommy Osborne

Informal event creates discussions surrounding toxic drug crisis

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