Could the stories of the dead shake us out of this moral panic?

Pixabay: Erika Wittlieb

This is a callout to people who know someone who has died in the toxic drug crisis in the last decade. I've got an idea. I'll need your help. 

Nobody can look at the faces in this Moms Stop the Harm video of lost loved ones without questioning what's going on, with more than 17,000 people dead in BC since 2016 and us seemingly powerless to act. (We aren't, but I've already written about that, so more on that later.)

That emotional connection is exactly what's needed to shake off this ennui around a four-alarm public health crisis. We seem to have parceled the toxic drug crisis into the part of our brains where we hold faint understanding of something that we don't think affects us. But it does affect us, in so many ways. 

Normally I'm all about the stats and evidence, but as the fantastic panel on moral panic pointed out at the Feb. 26 event in Peers Victoria's speaker series, we've got stacks of evidence on this issue and quite a lot of stats, at least at the death end of things. So the question becomes how you get past moral panic to actually implement the evidence-based strategies that will substantially ease the crisis. 

I think it's through the heart. Not in a Sally Struthers way - teary-eyed, sobby, pleading (sorry, Sally, loved you in Man on the Inside) - but in that way that almost instantly shakes off some of that "this is not my problem" way of thinking. I don't know what it is, but it's like the blinders come off and you finally see. For me, it was Stephen Lewis, of all things, pointing his finger out to the audience that I was in one spring day in 2004 and saying, "What are YOU doing?"

I've seen it happen a multitude of times for other people, where someone sees or experiences something out there in the realm of suffering that hits them where they live, and they get it. You can't predict when they'll have it or what's the magic sight that will open their eyes, because everybody is different, but it's a beautiful thing to see. (Tony Joe, I saw you have one.) Here's harm reduction and recovery advocate Guy Felicella talking about his father-in-law's moment. 

It can often be a long way to action from that point. But there will be zero action until a person at least has that moment. That's an important strategic reality to ponder for anyone pushing for social change, especially when an issue is stigmatized.

So let's help get them to that moment, I say. Let's bring the faces and stories of people killed in the toxic drug crisis into the world. Moms Stop the Harm's video has 300 faces, but there are thousands upon thousands more. I think there would be much power in a Humans of New York style of story-telling (an image and 150 words max) for all these people we have lost to an entirely preventable crisis.

What I'd ask for is an image, and the answer to this question: What did the world lose when this person died? I'd like their age and at least their first name, and two names are even better, because being out there with your full self, while hard, is a rejection of stigma.

The tools are in our hands, and free. Instagram would be great. Facebook has potential, though my personal sense is that the algorithm doesn't like things about toxic drugs. On the other hand, it DOES love things about people. 

Podcasts are a possibility, to bring out the voices that will reveal the enormous grief hanging over this province solely because of this preventable crisis. It would be very brave to consider X, but we could warm up on the friendlier BlueSky initially. 

We'll need some kind of consent form, of course. It's a proposal that people will need to think all the way through before participating. Some thought is needed as to who can consent to the use of an image and story. I'm imagining that things will go wrong, because they always do, and I'll tell you right now that the haters are going to hate. You're going to have to be like little Ruby Bridges in 1960 Louisiana, bravely entering the first integrated school while the white protestors hurled vile insults. 

But if you are one of the many frustrated families and supporters who can't bear the lack of action on this issue one minute more, then maybe you're OK with that. 

This thing I'm thinking about is meant to memorialize and honour those who have died, and hopefully stab people in the heart until we get action. But the use of drugs that our society believes are "evil"  is also possibly the most stigmatized social issue of our times, so it isn't an easy choice to step up. 

If you're reading this and are one of the lucky ones who doesn't know anyone who has died in the toxic drug crisis, I'd ask that you ask around and then share this with someone you know whose name comes up. Because there's definitely going to be someone in your circle. 

If you do know someone, write to me at jodypatersonmobile@gmail.com and tell me what you'd want to know before going ahead with something like this. I'm just seeing us spinning our wheels while people die, and it feels way past time to take things up a notch.