08/31/2026
🕯️ Overdose Awareness Day — We Remember Them
Today, we remember the people we have lost.
Not statistics.
Not numbers.
People.
Since the public-health emergency was declared in April 2016, more than 18,000 people in British Columbia have died from toxic-drug poisoning. In 2025 alone, another 1,826 lives were lost.
And after more than a decade of this crisis, we have to ask:
How is this acceptable?
We still have people struggling to access detox and treatment.
We still have long wait lists.
We still have people unable to find appropriate care when they are ready to ask for help.
We still have a housing crisis that keeps people trapped in survival mode.
We still have poverty, stigma and barriers to care.
And instead of putting all of our energy into fixing those gaps, we spend far too much time arguing about harm reduction versus abstinence, pointing fingers and blaming one another.
Meanwhile, people are dying.
At the Cannabis Substitution Project, we have watched this crisis up close. We have seen people who were at extraordinary risk and had nowhere else to turn.
So we stepped up.
CSP has risked everything to respond to a crisis that existing systems have not been able to adequately address.
And yes, there is risk in what we do.
We operate without the clear legal framework we have repeatedly tried to establish. We have made efforts to communicate with political parties, decision-makers and law enforcement because we want to do this properly. We want accountability. We want a pathway forward.
But too often, we encounter the same cycle:
Blame.
Blame.
Blame.
Meanwhile, services are being shut down, rearranged or lost, while the people who desperately need them are left trying to navigate an increasingly complicated system.
We don’t believe harm reduction should have to compete with treatment.
We don’t believe abstinence and harm reduction have to be enemies.
We believe people deserve options.
Some people need detox.
Some need treatment.
Some need housing.
Some need medical care.
Some need recovery support.
Some aren’t ready for abstinence.
And some people simply need someone to keep them alive long enough to have another chance.
There is room for all of it.
On Overdose Awareness Day, we remember every person lost to this crisis.
We remember their families.
We remember their friends.
We remember the people who tried to help them.
And we remember the people still here, fighting to survive.
But remembering isn’t enough.
We need action.
We need accessible treatment.
We need detox when people are ready—not weeks or months later.
We need housing people can actually afford.
We need evidence-informed harm reduction.
We need recovery supports.
We need fewer barriers and less stigma.
And we need governments and communities to stop fighting each other long enough to actually fight the toxic drug supply.
Because while we argue about whose approach is right…
people are dying.
And CSP will continue to show up.
Because every life matters.
🕯️ We remember them. We honour them. And we will keep fighting for the people who are still here.
