The Opioid Epidemic & Communities of Faith

 

                                                                     Illustration by Neil Webb

Provinces are now reporting the number of opioid deaths in 2021 and the news is bleak. As examples, British Columbia and Alberta had record totals of deaths, with nearly 4,000 between the two provinces. 2022 is starting out in similar grim fashion. 

You may have seen that the Sackler family in the United States is in the news again. They are the wicked bunch who owned Purdue Pharma, producers of OxyContin, the drug prescribed to millions as a safe and effective painkiller. The company knew that it was highly addictive for years but engaged in a deceptive and deadly campaign to sell their product. Somehow the Sacklers have avoided personal liability and prosecution by paying massive fines, beginning with $4.3 billion. Recently they agreed to raise that amount to roughly $6 billion. Is that what half a million lives lost during the crisis of the past 20 years is worth? No one goes to jail and the Sacklers are still multi-billionaires. It was greed and a fascination with recognition -- their names were on institutions around the world -- which drove them. 

Communities of faith have never been sure how to respond to addictions, often stigmatizing those who are deeply affected by them. The AA groups meeting in church basements have generally been separate worlds from the Sunday morning congregations. Through the years I had a fair number of conversations with those living with addictions of various kinds, everything from alcohol to drugs to gambling. Some of the individuals were members who were living secretive and desparate lives under the veneer of respectablity. I often felt inadequate in responding to their complex needs but they felt there was a spiritual component to their illness and the possibilities for recovery. 

There was a thoughful article in Broadview magazine last Fall about the way different congregations are responding to the crisis and I encourage you to read it. I am impressed by the volunteers from our congregation, Trenton United, who took part in a harm reduction seminar related to the Warming Centre at the church. Here are two excerpts from the article: 

“For a long time in the church, we have used a purity-based abstinence model,” says Rev. Evan Swance-Smith of TUNM, “and the reality is that people are still using. Clearly it does not work for everyone. It doesn’t work for the majority of people. We need to ask ourselves: how can we reduce the harm in this activity and the stigma?”

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Stigma is a significant contributor to the crisis, says Benjamin Perrin, a law professor at the University of British Columbia and author of Overdose: Heartbreak and Hope in Canada’s Opioid Crisis. “We stigmatize substance users more than people with leprosy,” he asserts. Attitudes of blame and judgment have led to people using drugs alone, he adds, with no one available to provide first aid or emergency support if the drug supply is contaminated.

With the arrival of fentanyl in recent years, the likelihood of contamination is considerable. A potent painkiller, up to 100 times stronger than morphine, it’s potentially lethal even in trace amounts. “People from every walk of life, every socioeconomic strata, are affected,” says Perrin. As a society, our aim needs to be saving lives, not punishing people, he insists. Perrin approaches the issue through both the facts and his faith: “God doesn’t want to leave us in a place of sin and trauma. God wants to heal us,” he reflects. “And to get to that place, we’ve got to stay alive.”

https://broadview.org/safe-consumption-sites/

Water from the Rock and World Water Day in today's Groundling blog https://groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.com/2022/03/water-from-rock-world-water-day.html