Canada is in the grip of an overdose
emergency. Nearly 600 dead since the beginning of the year
and the province still not close in finding a solution
to the toxic drug crisis. Since 2016, around 35,000
Canadians have died of drug overdose. 80% of those by the misuse of a powerful and addictive painkiller,
fentanyl. A grain this big
is enough to kill and it's making its way to Australia. We're here to ask what we can learn from
this deadly epidemic and the fight to save lives. I'm in British Columbia on
Canada's West Coast, flanked by mountains, rivers
and pine forests. It's a province
teeming with natural beauty. But beneath these postcard views lies the highest rate of fentanyl
deaths in the country. On average, six people die here every day
from overdose. Hey, guys, I'm just releasing this video
just cause, like, maybe when I'm better at YouTube, I can look back on this
and laugh and something. He was precocious and smart. He started his own YouTube channel
when he was ten. Against my wishes. But he knew how to do it. He loved snowboarding, snow skiing,
water skiing. He was good at almost anything he tried. That was Saturday, Easter weekend, 6 o'clock And I said, I'm just making dinner. And he said, 'Call me when it's ready.' And so he went into his bedroom
and was watching YouTube videos in his chair and dinner was ready. And I knocked on his door
and he was slumped over in his chair. I called 911. I couldn't revive him and did CPR. And three months later, the coroner said that
he had a very small amount of fentanyl in his system,
and the coroner said he must not have had any tolerance because it was such a small amount. Roland was just 16. He didn't have adverse
childhood experience as he didn't grow up in poverty. He didn't grow up with abuse or violence. You know, he had a pretty good life
and he was a pretty happy kid. He took what he thought was a Xanax recreationally, but he didn't want fentanyl and he didn't want to die He looks very happy. Yeah he got a first medal. Ronan died because fentanyl
is getting mixed in with other drugs. In Canada, 15 to 24 year
olds are now the fastest growing group being hospitalised for opioid overdose. I've met five or six other moms like me
where their kids were experimenting and died, all in the Vancouver area. Two of them thought they were snorting
cocaine, but they were 16 years old. One was 15. I thought fentanyl... people died
from fentanyl who are intravenous drug users on street entrenched,
like on our Downtown Eastside. That's who I thought died of fentanyl. I didn't realise that people could die from taking a pill. Vancouver's Downtown Eastside has a long history
of marginalised people and drug use. This is also where fentanyl first emerged
in Canada. Hugh Lampkin has lived on the Downtown
Eastside for the past 20 years. Hi Hugh, Evan. Now nursing a chronic back injury, Hugh's cycled
in and out of heroin addiction. most of his life as a way of trying
to deal with childhood abuse. He can clearly recall the moment in 2014
when fentanyl arrived on the scene. Last year, half of the 564 overdose deaths in Vancouver
were in this part of the city. To try and save as many lives as he can, Hugh helped set up this overdose prevention
site. It's a place where users can do drugs, but under supervision
and get help immediately if they overdose. Australia has just two supervised
consumption sites like this, but Canada has almost 40 across
the nation. These facilities have become a frontline to reduce the wave of deadly overdose. John is a drug user and Hugh's colleague. He's personally saved 30 people
from overdose. The 30 people you've saved, how many of
those people were ODed on fentanyl? Easy to hide, addictive, cheap and potent, fentanyl has become the perfect
cutting agent to improve profit margins on everything from heroin
to fake prescription pills. And that's exactly
why Australian authorities are on edge. Single largest detection
fentanyl Australia has ever seen. Last year they intercepted 11
kilograms of fentanyl coming from Canada. That's 5.5 million lethal doses, enough
to kill the entire population of Sydney. But to addiction medicine specialist
Dr. Christine Sutherland, fentanyl is a useful pharmaceutical. We use it in medicine all the time. Like if you were in terrible pain
and went to the hospital with a broken leg,
you probably would get fentanyl. Dr. Christy's been working
with Vancouver's most vulnerable on the Downtown Eastside
since 2010. She's watched fentanyl take hold. Most people
did not want to transition to fentanyl. It is much more potent than heroin. So people who were previously acclimatised
to heroin, their brain adjusted to this new potent opioid
and so that they have a heavier opiate
need in order to stay out of withdrawal. Well, when my patients are really stuck
in a cycle of drug use, they're quite vulnerable. They're vulnerable because of the drug
they're buying. They're vulnerable because of engaging
with the illicit drug market. So I was hoping to separate my patients
from that ongoing vulnerability that they had
by creating this alternate system where they can access drugs in a way
that's safer. It's regulated and thoughtful in a way that I hope
reduces those public health harms. In a world first program, Dr. Christy is fighting the fentanyl crisis
by selling pharmaceutical grade
fentanyl to drug users. So after they've checked in, they come to the back to see the nurse
to get their dose of the day. So everyone's dose is titrated
to specifically what they need in terms of their tolerance. And we were in credibly surprised
at the how high the doses have to be. So we're giving people 25,000
micrograms of fentanyl four times a day. So if you were in labour
and giving birth to a baby, you might get 100 micrograms
or 200 micrograms. Often for people who are using opioids,
it's the criminalisation of their lives that is causing the harm. They have to engage in sex work
or a crime to get their drugs. And then when they do buy the drugs,
they don't know what is in it, that it could be
any percentage of fentanyl. So if you eliminate the violence,
the need to do crime, they can exit from sex work. And then they have a caring nurse
and a primary care doctor who will wrap them in services. You see people get better. Then at the same time we see them
overdose less. What impact does that have
on the continuing need for, say, fentanyl? Often people think that if drug users
have access to drugs, they'll all take the maximum dose
and be on it forever. But what we can see from the research and what I have seen
in my clinical experience is that when people are in a high intensity program like this
and stabilise, they want to move on. Since 2019, Canada has been trying
to combat overdose by dispensing opiate alternatives
similar to methadone. It's called safe supply. But Dr. Christy is going much further
by supplying fentanyl, and this has provoked high level
political resistance. There is no safe supply of these drugs. They are deadly, they are lethal,
and they are relentlessly addictive. Canada's conservative opposition
leader Pierre Poilievre calls for tougher policing
on the illegal supply of fentanyl. We need to bring in tougher laws
for the violent offenders and the gangsters and organised criminals
who are preying upon these addicts. He also slams the Trudeau government's
possible decriminalisation of small amounts of drugs
across the country. And beyond just subsidising deadly drugs, now he wants to decriminalise crack,
heroin, cocaine. This policy is insane.
It is killing people. It's clear and simple and wrong to say
everyone should just stop using drugs. It's not going work. It's never happened
in the history of humanity. It's funny that we're so
stuck in it with this, like, sort of public love of prohibition
and punishment for people who use drugs when really re-envisioning
a different world would be less costly, there'd be less death
and then less suffering. To me, it's policy change. It's not that radical. Where Dr. Christy has the approval
from local authorities to run her program. I'm about to meet a rebellious group,
taking the concept even further without permission. So right now I'm bagging up heroin. They operate on the cusp of legality. TV cameras have never been in this room. The three drugs we sell,
cocaine, heroin and meth. We sell them for the price that
we get them so we don't make any profit. This is the Drug Users
Liberation Front or DULF, for short. It's where a select group of users
can buy illicit drugs free from contaminants like fentanyl. Lots of people don't get their drugs checked,
or if they do, it's just once in a while. So when people get it from us,
basically they're getting their drugs checked every single time
they use. 27 years old, Jeremy has university degrees in public health and biology. Working at safe consumption
sites and drug checking centers, he's been trying to prevent overdoses
since 2017. People need to know what they're using. They buy something off of the street,
who knows what will be cut with? Sometimes they're buying drywall instead of actual drugs, or
sometimes their cocaine is cut with pig dewormer. Somebody who is intending
to do cocaine or intending to do meth accidentally gets if they're not
in their drugs, they're going to overdose. And if nobody's around to save them
a revival, they're likely going to die. So now, here's a big question, Jeremy Is what you're doing here right now legal? It's a grey zone. It's a grey zone. By the written law, no, it's illegal
to possess sell and distribute drugs. But in the context of a public health emergency, which is a legislative tool
that public health officials have, we need to do everything
we can to stop this. So you know, is it illegal to
save people's lives? I'd say no. And the reason why we're doing this
is we feel like we can or we can argue that in court giving that that's
a good argument and so do our lawyers. Eris Nyx is a co-founder of DULF. She's going out on a limb to save lives and doesn't
like being compared with dealers. We're not fucking drug dealers. We take a slice of the illicit market. You know, we test it rigorously
and then we reintroduce it at cost without turning a profit.
It's horrendous. I don't know if you've ever sold drugs
professionally, but it's not a very smart business model
if that's what you do. Both Jeremy and Eris
are convinced the next response to the overdose crisis
should happen in the halls of power. What would you like to see happen? The solution's so rational. And I could talk to... The drug issue it's not a criminal issue,
it's not a medical issue. It's a political issue, right? I'm like you regulate the drug supply,
you don't have overdoses. Do you have more people
using drugs? Sure. But then you build out
your systems of recovery and you build out systems
that actually work. And then there's not winning I'm like we sell fucking heroin to 42 people. We traffic a kilo of heroin a month. There's a lot of fucking heroin
to illegally traffic for some fucking bum bum
that lives down the street. You know, I didn't want to do this. So basically we're fucked
then it's like AIDS in the 80s when they were like, "It's gay cancer.
I hope these fags die", But this time it's 'I hope
these drug users fucking die.' But in the nine months
that this project has been running, no one has overdosed
or died from consuming their drugs. And with this unlikely duo
documenting every aspect of the project, they're determined to show their critics
a model that works. Our end goal is to have it expanded,
to have health authorities or nonprofits be able to take this on
sustainably and keep it rolling and hopefully save a lot of lives. I think it's really important to
get out there that it's not just 30 and 40 year olds that are dying. It's young people. It's teenagers. And the other day, I heard a 12 and 13 year old that had died. Deb and Lizzie are part of a group
called Mums Stop the Harm. It's a nationwide network
with over 3,000 members, all of whom have lost loved ones
to overdose. My daughter, who died,
she told me of a time when she was given fentanyl from a Burnaby dealer,
and she said, 'I'm never doing it again, mum, that was awful.' So when she got drugs tainted
with fentanyl, like so many of them, she didn't know that it, you know,
that was what was in there. Deb's 22-year-old daughter,
Ola, died five years ago after consuming
heroin laced with fentanyl. When I joined Mums Stop the Harm, after my daughter died, what I found was these are people just like me, you know? These are people
just like me who have lost their kids. They're nice people.
They were good parents, and yet they've lost,
you know, something that is immeasurably you can't measure how deep the pain is
when you when you lose somebody like that. The group has recently launched
a campaign called Sudden Silence. And it aims to make people aware that fentanyl is not just killing
drug users living rough. It's cutting a deadly swathe
through middle-class Canada as well. We made the posters, banners. And the idea then is to have those banners
travel all around and be put up in public places to let
them know these these people are us. You know, it's not somebody else. They're our kids. They're who we are right now. It could be your kid. They're not some part of you know, losers over here
or something like that. And here's Dawn. She's a lovely person. This was her son.
Marco wanted to be a chef. Lovely guy. Then you see Karma. "That girl? You're kidding!" What could have happened
to that girl, Gemma? And then you read the story
and you go, wow, that kid should still be alive. Or, you know, this is a teacher. She was a teacher. Okay, here we go. The group is calling for changes
to drug policy from the availability
of addiction services and opiate alternatives to reducing the stigma
associated with drug use. We have these systemic barriers that
make it difficult for people to get help. And I said I've said many times it should be as easy to get some help
as it is to get the drugs. Deb's mission to help the lives of drug users
and their families is driven by a deep sense of loss. It's something she wants to help
others avoid. It was five years before
I started to see colour in the world again. Before I could, you know, laugh at a joke. Before I enjoyed a lot of things because, you know, the death of a child is so deep
and all encompassing. And even though your child isn't there
physically, they're with you all the time. So you have to get used to that because
it's a relationship of a different kind and not the one you want,
but it's the one you got. Here we go. Deb is taking me to a protest. It's the seventh anniversary
of the Declaration of British Columbia's overdose emergency. With almost 12,000 dead in this state
alone since the 2016 declaration, today is a grim milestone. They've called it this year
the horrible parade. And it's a horrible parade
against horrible drug policy that is killing people. Eris from DULF is leading the protest,
bringing together activists and grieving loved ones to demand more
from the Canadian government. No matter how badly you punish that,
people will always use drugs
and people deserve to be able to live. And you cannot recover
someone if they have died. Mothers, social workers and drug users
marching to t5he chant 'Safe drugs' Crowd here is calling on the government to allow safe supply
in a non-medical setting. They want the sale and distribution
of meth, cocaine, heroin and other illicit drugs
to be regulated, safe, And most importantly,
fentanyl-free. Show the government safe supply
isn't a fucking rocket surgery. It's pretty simple. We can do it right here ourselves, right? We're going to save each other. But we're not only that, we're going
to save all the fucking stockbrokers and everyone everywhere else who's doing
drugs everywhere across Canada. We are digging the grave
for the drug war today because we're so fucking sick
of digging graves for each other. Through good police work or perhaps
good luck. fentanyl hasn't hit Australia streets yet, but for those with lived experience,
here is a clear warning for Australia. This drug is indiscriminate and kills
people who are experimenting. It kills people who are recreationally
using, and it kills addicts. Pam's 16-year-old son, Ronan, who died after taking a
counterfeit Xanax, It was tainted with a tiny
grain of fentanyl. If I had known about these counterfeit
pills, like, I would have loved to have this conversation with him
and any other teenager I know I think of my boy
every minute of every hour of the day. It's like having an amputated limb
and you have these phantom pains. I just miss so much. It's like not just missing him. It's all the things he could have done. He would have had an interesting life. He had so many crazy, wild dreams. And I encouraged all of them. I just want to say thank you
for watching this. Please, subscribe
although I haven’t released any other content than this. Thank you. Please subscribe and good bye.
