Vancouver facing similar drug crisis, debate on how to approach emergency
On this Overdose awareness week, KPIX is looking at the opioid crisis though the shared experiences of San Francisco and Vancouver, another city hit particularly hard over the past 10 years.
While they may be two cities with differing approaches, there is a very similar debate in each city over what the approach to the emergency should look like.
"It's too easy, here, to become trapped here," explained Jeffrey Brocklesby, a drug user in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. "Once you get into this five block by two block radius, you have everything you need to maintain an addiction, without having to do much."
Whether it's the streets and alleys of Vancouver, or those in San Francisco's Tenderloin, one obstacle to pulling away from the opioid crisis is that drugs are everywhere. Brocklesby said he has tried the treatment program offered at the downtown safe-use site.
"That hasn't worked for me," he said. "Maybe I wasn't ready, or maybe the environment down in the middle of the hood was too much of an overload for me."
And that is one reasons help often comes from outside of town.
"So this is a place that your mom and kids can come and visit and feel safe and comfortable," said Giuseppe Ganci of the Last Door Recovery Society. "It's also helped this community. Our neighbors love us. We take care of the lawns."
About 30 minutes from downtown, you will find Ganci's group and a list of other organizations based in New Westminster, now known as Canada's recovery capital.
"We've become this voice for recovery in Canada," Ganci explained. "And there is some responsibility with that. Some negativity with that. Everyone has an opinion."
Like 90% of the staff here, Giuseppe Ganci is in recovery himself, and he thinks recovery, that is stressing a path away from opioid addiction, has been left in the shadow of efforts to reduce the risk of drugs.
"Yes, there is a home for harm reduction," Ganci said. "There's a place for harm reduction. But what's next. You know, I'm going to save your life today with a shot of naloxone. That's great. But we need to do more than that."
For anyone who has followed San Francisco's conversation over how to respond to this emergency, this recovery vs. harm reduction argument will sound familiar.
"I keep saying, harm reduction doesn't enable people to continue in their addiction," said drug policy reform advocate Guy Felicella. "It enables people to continue living."
Felicella also spent years battling addiction on Hastings Street. He said recovery requires survival and being receptive to treatment often takes patience.
"It's not built on, like, corporations, where we want to see the immediate results," he explained. "These results are going to take time and you have to build these relationships with people. And that's why harm production is so important."
The divide over what help should look like has driven debate in both of these cities for years now, despite their different approaches.
"There's a lot of infighting going on," Ganci said of the disputes. "And most of it is for dollars, grant money. Health Canada obviously supports more money into the reduction model."
The same story is unfolding in San Francisco as the recovery community pushes for a share of public dollars, largely for designated sober housing. So, both cities are having a debate over where the money should go, and how to best get people into treatment.
"Detox is not going to help anybody unless it's when they need it, at the time they need it," Brocklesby said of what would be most helpful. "Right then and there. You can't tell someone to wait for detox because the next day might be the day he kills himself."
And that is one point where even those who may disagree on approaches do find some common ground: the idea that there needs to be far more options for help, available on demand, whether that be recovery in a sober environment, or something else.
"And scale them all up to support people who struggle with substance use, addiction, mental health, all of it," Felicella said.
"I truly believe there should be many pathways to recovery," Ganci added. " And let people decide where they want to go."
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction, call the national helpline at 1-800-662-4357. It's free, confidential and open 24/7, 365