CANADIAN MOTHERS TAKE DRUG BATTLE TO THE UNITED NATIONS
The mumsDU moms are going to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on The World Drug Problem
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mumsDU moms, Donna, Jennifer will be at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem to make sure that...THE FAMILY VOICE IS NO LONGER SILENT! |
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mom, Jennifer, tells Global News why it's so important for the family voice to be part of the United Nations discussion on the World Drug ProblemJennifer, Donna will be among those at a special assembly at the United Nations, reinforcing how damaging this war on drugs can be, especially Families.
Rumina Daya explains how these families hope sharing their experience will bring change. |
Canadian Mothers Take Drug Battle to the United Nations
A group of Canadian mothers who have lost children to drugs plans to take on the world after a successful first step at home.
“We’ll be there to listen to learn and connect,” McBain said. “But it’s also really important that we have a presence there.
“We’ll be there as a voice for Canadian families.”
“We’ll be there as a voice for Canadian families.”
Health-care system flaws hindering Ontario’s response to fentanyl crisis“We have sent the message out loud and clear that this is a priority for us,” Dr. Philpott said.
The lack of a co-ordinated response in Ontario – the country’s largest per capita user of prescription painkillers – stands in stark contrast to British Columbia, which medical experts say serves as a model for the rest of Canada. Officials from the provincial Health Ministry, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and the province’s five regional health authorities meet regularly to discuss prevention measures, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement. |
mom, Donna May (Toronto)
Donna May wishes there was treatment available for her daughter after she became addicted to OxyContin and her doctor cut her off. Ms. May, who asked The Globe to refer to her daughter by her nickname, Jac, said she turned to the street, using heroin and working as a prostitute to feed her drug habit. She was in hospital for several weeks after contracting flesh-eating disease. “She had no tools to get clean.”
On Aug. 21, 2012, Ms. May found her daughter in her bedroom in respiratory distress. “I heard the rattling sound and knew she was overdosing,” Ms. May said. Jac died later that day. She was 34. |
How Canada got Addicted to Fentanyl
Investigative Journalists from the Globe & Mail Report - A Killer High
Global News speaks to mom, Petra, who also believes more emphasis needs to be placed on methadone treatment.
 Dr Hakique Virani (Edmonton)
Dr. Hakique Virani says the methadone clinic at the Metro City Medical Clinic, where he serves as medical director, has never been busier.
“We’re seeing people from the suburbs of Edmonton – St. Albert, Sherwood Park – who are young, just finishing high school, have promising futures ahead of them (but) who have gotten caught up in this opiate problem,” he said. |
 Mom, Petra Schulz (Edmonton/Maine Island, BC)
“We have this idea that drugs are bad,” Schulz said. “And indeed they are, but it’s unrealistic to think that we will keep all people off drugs.”
“The night before (Danny died), he had actually asked me to make an appointment again with his counsellor, which I had done, but he never was able to go to that appointment,’ Schulz said. |
Newsletter:
What was talked about when mom, Donna, sat down with Minister of Health, Jane Philpott et al. in Ottawa last week
Part 2 in the Series:
NARCAN ON HEAVEN'S DOOR: 'I won't let somebody else's child die,' says mother of dead addict
Mom, Donna May, (Toronto ON)
Part 1 in the series:
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 When Donna May’s daughter Jac, pictured, died of an overdose in 2012, a drug that may have saved her life was within arm’s reach. — Image Credit: (Submitted, Taken At Crescent Beach)
It’s every parent’s worst nightmare – watching your child die. Yet that was Donna May’s reality on Aug. 21, 2012. That night, May returned home from walking her dogs to find her daughter Jac, a longtime addict, overdosing. “I could hear the normal sounds of an overdose,” she said. “The laboured breath. The snoring. The gurgling sounds. I flew upstairs.” Jac was rushed to hospital, where May watched as her daughter’s ribs were broken during CPR. She stood by as Jac inhaled her own vomit before going into cardiac arrest and ultimately succumbing to the overdose. Narcan, also known as naloxone, was within arm’s reach at the hospital that night. The synthetic drug, often referred to as an “overdose antidote,” could have saved her life. It wasn’t used. Surrey’s Gateway shelter uses it every day. |
NALOXONE: Petra comments on the rules being relaxed for pharmacy sale of life-saving overdose antidote“It is wonderful news,” said Petra Schulz, a Mayne Island mother whose 25-year-old son died last April after taking what she believes was one fentanyl pill. |
“In the past, only the user him- or herself could get the prescription, so parents had to lie and say that they themselves are users to get the life-saving kit,” said Schulz, a co-founder of mumsDU — Moms United and Mandated to Saving the lives of Drug Users.
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Supervised Injection Services for Toronto?
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mom, Donna - "A 73% increase in overdose deaths in Toronto alone between 2004 & 2014. We have an epidemic happening and need to respond to it."
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“In the summer of the gun, we lost 52 people ... we acted. In 2014, we lost 252 from overdose, we need to act!”
Joe Cressy, Toronto City Councillor | Head of Toronto Drug Strategy Task Force |
mom, Donna, deputes for Supervised Injection Services for Toronto's substance users
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Some 30 people spoke on the controversial item at Monday’s meeting. Among them was Donna May, whose 35-year-old daughter, Jac, died more than 3 1/2 years ago from an opioid overdose.
“The hardest thing I had to face was my own ignorance with my daughter’s addiction and that it cost me years with her I’ll never get back,” May said. “There are no do-overs when your child is dead.” May believes her daughter may still be alive if she had had access to a supervised injection site. |
mom, Petra, talks about the need to move Naloxone on the formulary NOW
and the need for
Good Samaritan Legislation
Our mom, Donna, receives an invitation from the Federal Minister of Health to present and discuss issues to be raised at the United Nations General Assembly Special Session to address the World Drug Problem (UNGASS 2016)
Invitation to Roundtable Participants
Dear Ms. May:
On behalf of the Honourable Jane Philpott, Minister of Health, I am pleased to invite you to participate in a roundtable discussion on Canada’s preparations towards the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS 2016) on March 30, 2016. The meeting will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in room 1550 of the Brooke Claxton Building, 70 Columbine Drive, Ottawa, Ontario.
The Minister will be attending for the first hour during which time you are invited to give a five-minute presentation on what you believe the Government should consider as it prepares for UNGASS. Attached, for reference, are the five themes to be discussed during the UNGASS roundtables (Annex A), but please feel free to speak about any issues you feel are relevant. After each organization has made their presentation, there will be an opportunity for a discussion with the Minister. This conversation will continue with the senior officials who will also be in attendance once the Minister leaves. In the interest of time, Hilary Geller, the responsible Assistant Deputy Minister at Health Canada will facilitate the meeting and ensure a reasonable opportunity for all participants to present their perspectives.
Minister Philpott looks forward to meeting you.
Dear Ms. May:
On behalf of the Honourable Jane Philpott, Minister of Health, I am pleased to invite you to participate in a roundtable discussion on Canada’s preparations towards the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem (UNGASS 2016) on March 30, 2016. The meeting will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in room 1550 of the Brooke Claxton Building, 70 Columbine Drive, Ottawa, Ontario.
The Minister will be attending for the first hour during which time you are invited to give a five-minute presentation on what you believe the Government should consider as it prepares for UNGASS. Attached, for reference, are the five themes to be discussed during the UNGASS roundtables (Annex A), but please feel free to speak about any issues you feel are relevant. After each organization has made their presentation, there will be an opportunity for a discussion with the Minister. This conversation will continue with the senior officials who will also be in attendance once the Minister leaves. In the interest of time, Hilary Geller, the responsible Assistant Deputy Minister at Health Canada will facilitate the meeting and ensure a reasonable opportunity for all participants to present their perspectives.
Minister Philpott looks forward to meeting you.
mom, Donna, speaks to CityNews on how ALL of Toronto's community member's will benefit from having Supervised Injection Facilities located within their community
mom, Donna, on the City of Toronto's plan to push ahead for ‘multiple’ supervised injection sites
By: Jennifer Pagliaro City Hall reporter, Published on Sat Mar 12 2016
Toronto is moving ahead with plans to become the second Canadian city to open controversial supervised injection sites for drug users, the Star has learned.
A report from the city’s medical officer of health, to be released Monday, will outline the need for “multiple” locations where drug use is concentrated and will be embedded in existing health services. The proposed locations are also expected to be announced Monday.
The move follows an escalating number of overdose deaths in Toronto, which climbed to an all-time high of 206 in 2013, and the growing trend of heroin and fentanyl use — what medical officer of health Dr. David McKeown has declared a “significant public health issue.”
Toronto is moving ahead with plans to become the second Canadian city to open controversial supervised injection sites for drug users, the Star has learned.
A report from the city’s medical officer of health, to be released Monday, will outline the need for “multiple” locations where drug use is concentrated and will be embedded in existing health services. The proposed locations are also expected to be announced Monday.
The move follows an escalating number of overdose deaths in Toronto, which climbed to an all-time high of 206 in 2013, and the growing trend of heroin and fentanyl use — what medical officer of health Dr. David McKeown has declared a “significant public health issue.”
mumsDU mom, Donna D May
“I’ve walked both sides of the street. I’ve seen it from both points of view. I understand when a community says, ‘I don’t want it in my backyard,’ the NIMBYism, however, the truth of the matter is that it’s already in a person’s backyard.”
May said that breaking the social stigmas around addiction and opening supervised injection sites in Toronto and elsewhere is crucial for other families and to prevent more deaths.
"It could happen to anyone's child"
May said that breaking the social stigmas around addiction and opening supervised injection sites in Toronto and elsewhere is crucial for other families and to prevent more deaths.
"It could happen to anyone's child"
 Dr. David McKeown, Toronto's Medical Officer of Health
“Significant public health issue”
Supervised injection sites allow drug users, who bring in their own substances, a safe place to inject while supervised by health professionals in case of overdose. Those who use these sites are also provided with new, sterilized equipment to prevent infection and have ready access to treatment and community supports. McKeown said in an interview. “That is the kind of model that I think makes the most sense in this city.” |
 Councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 20 Trinity-Spadina)
Chair, Toronto Drug Strategy Implementation Panel
“The need is more significant now than it’s ever been in our city’s history — that people are dying on our streets and we can save those lives,”
“We have a responsibility and a capacity to act and we should . . . We needed these programs yesterday and I hope we’ll be able to have them open and saving lives as quickly as possible.” |
mom, Leslie, on Victoria Island to speak about Medically Supervised Consumption Services.
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Spike in fatal drug overdoses fuels calls for Victoria safe-injection siteLeslie McBain lost her son to a drug overdose two years ago and says the problem must be seen as an epidemic and treated that way.
“A supervised injection site not only saves lives, it prevents the spread of disease, it reduces the detritus from IV drug use, it gives them a safe and private place to do what they need to do because they are addicts, ” she says. |
* MARCH 8TH, 2016: UPDATE on BILL C-224
Good Samaritan Overdose Law has 2nd Reading and goes to the Standing Committee on Health
Good Samaritan Law - for years, through various organizations including mumsDU, Jac's voice and FED UP!, Canadians have been asking for this.
Many Indications that Bootleg Fentanyl has arrived in Ontario.
Surge in overdoses prompt fears fentanyl use is rising in Ontario
KAREN HOWLETT The Globe and Mail Published Tuesday, Feb. 02, 2016 10:27PM EST Last updated Tuesday, Feb. 02, 2016 11:15PM EST
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Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins said in an e-mail response to The Globe and Mail that “he takes the issue of opioid drug abuse and misuse very seriously.”
mumsDU mom, Donna May
Photo Credit: Kevin Van Paassen for The Globe and Mail “She had just given up,” Ms. May said. “The stigma that was put on her and me was enormous. We fought that every day.”
Ms. May has co-founded a group called mumsDU (moms united and mandated to saving the lives of Drug Users) to help other families who have lost loved ones and to draw attention to the crisis. “She left me with such a gift to fight for other families,” “We immediately thought it might be spiked with fentanyl,” he said.
The regional coroner’s office expedited one toxicology test, which revealed fentanyl in one victim’s urine. This confirmed that fentanyl is circulating in the community, Dr. Moore said. |
“There are no adults in charge of this file in Ontario,” Mr. Parkinson said.
“We have been in ignorant bliss,” said Kieran Michael Moore, associate medical officer of health for KFL&A Public Health, an agency representing Kingston and neighbouring communities.
“You need real-time information at your fingertips to be able to have good active policies and effective intervention,” Dr. Moore said. Fentanyl was developed as a prescription painkiller, but gained popularity as a street drug after OxyContin was removed from the market. The Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada warned last August that the threat from illicit use of fentanyl is expanding eastward, “facilitated by organized crime groups.” Rob Boyd, director of the Oasis drug treatment program at the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre in Ottawa, said he asked 16 patients last December whether dealers had offered them powdered fentanyl. Eight said yes.
Rosana Salvaterra, medical officer of health for Peterborough, Ont., said her region had a cluster of opioid-related deaths last fall. “We have data from police telling us it’s the bootleg fentanyl pills,” Dr. Salvaterra said. Shaun Hopkins, manager of the needle exchange program at Toronto Public Health, said officials will not know what drugs were involved until they receive toxicology results.
“We are just going on word of mouth, on what people think they used. It’s either very potent heroin or it’s got something else in it,” Ms. Hopkins said. |
mom, Jennifer, speaks to CBC's Gloria Macarenko: 'A substance user can be anyones child. This is a Global epidemic. We need a continuum of care! mumsDU is the family and friends voice at the United Nations in April of 2016.'
In April 2014, Jennifer Woodside's 21-year-old son Dylan went to sleep and never woke up.
Dylan, a gifted studio arts student at Capilano University, had taken Oxycotin laced with fentanyl and overdosed.
Since then ,Woodside has worked to raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl, forming a national group called Moms United and Mandated to Saving the Lives of Drug Users.
She says it's not enough for recreational drug users to "know their source.
"I know that Dylan knew his source, and knowing your source does not mean anything, because that person who's selling probably has an addiction him or herself," said Woodside, of Burnaby.
"You can take one tablet with fentanyl and be safe one day, or you can take half of it and die."
Woodside and the other mothers who have lost children to fentanyl overdoses are campaigning to have kits of naloxone — a drug which counteracts opioid effects — more widely available to recreational users.
"Rather than criminalizing or punishing users, we need to help users," she said.
In the video above Jennifer tells host Gloria Macarenko how naloxone kits and progressive drug policies can help save the lives of recreational drug users.
Dylan, a gifted studio arts student at Capilano University, had taken Oxycotin laced with fentanyl and overdosed.
Since then ,Woodside has worked to raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl, forming a national group called Moms United and Mandated to Saving the Lives of Drug Users.
She says it's not enough for recreational drug users to "know their source.
"I know that Dylan knew his source, and knowing your source does not mean anything, because that person who's selling probably has an addiction him or herself," said Woodside, of Burnaby.
"You can take one tablet with fentanyl and be safe one day, or you can take half of it and die."
Woodside and the other mothers who have lost children to fentanyl overdoses are campaigning to have kits of naloxone — a drug which counteracts opioid effects — more widely available to recreational users.
"Rather than criminalizing or punishing users, we need to help users," she said.
In the video above Jennifer tells host Gloria Macarenko how naloxone kits and progressive drug policies can help save the lives of recreational drug users.
Mom, Leslie, speaks to students on Drugs and Addiction
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Mother's Words Empower
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mom, Petra, whose son died from a fentanyl overdose in 2014 talks to CBC news Edmonton about why she believes prevention is key rather than enforcement.
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mom, Donna: Fentanyl Is Killing Canadians — And There's a Battle for Access to an Antidote
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mom, Petra: Otiena Ellwand gets a glimpse of one family's fentanyl tragedy
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mom, Donna: 'learning the hard way' and sharing so that others may not have to.
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click any of the blue buttons below to read full articles or listen to podcasts
mom, Leslie and Dr. Evan Wood speak to CBC BC Almanac on the Report, 'Together we can Do this: Strategies to address BC's prescription opioid crisis
November 24th/15
November 24th/15
mom, Leslie, speaks to much needed changes around Opioid treatment by Vancouver Coastal Health
November 4th/15
moms Donna & Petra take the Harm Reduction Caravan to Prince Edward Island
October 28-30th/15
mumsDU mom Donna May takes the Harm Reduction Caravan to Ottawa For the Canadian Association of Community Health Care Conference
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Her daughter's dying wish was that her mother learn what life in addiction is really all about. She did, she learned. Now she educates and advocates on addiction in the hope that no other mother has to wake up sad every single day
Nicholas Galepeau |
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mumsdu mom Petra Schulz takes the Harm Reduction Caravan to Edmonton's Fentanyl Symposium
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mumsDU mom Donna May in Toronto - Deposing at the Toronto Board of Health on why Harm Reduction matter
Sept 22/15 City News, Toronto
mumDU Launches in VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA
photo credit: Darren Stone, Times Colonist
Beset by losses, mothers push for fentanyl antidote
Katherine Dedyna / Times Colonist
August 16, 2015 06:00 AM
Click on photo to be redirected to the full article
Mothers hold pictures of their children who died after using fentanyl. From left: Leslie McBain, with a photo of her son, Jordan Miller, who died at 25; Donna May, with Jac, who was 35; Jennifer Woodside, with Dylan Bassler, 21; and Petra Schulz, with Danny Schulz, 25.
A group of mothers who have lost adult children to drug addiction — sometimes by taking just one fentanyl pill — are pushing past their grief to mobilize changes in health policy they say could save many other lives.
Moms United and Mandated to Saving the lives of Drug Users, or mumsDU, kicked off a cross-Canada media campaign in Saanich last week, breaking the silence they say surrounds addiction-related deaths, on the rise due to the synthetic painkiller fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
The group says there is an urgent need to legislate easier access to naloxone, the drug antidote to fentanyl and other opioids such as morphine, heroin, methadone and oxycodone. Currently, a doctor’s prescription is required for the antidote, which can restore normal breathing after opioids have impaired respiration.
Health Canada recently acknowledged that naloxone has been used safely in Canadian hospitals for more than 40 years and plans to review broader access, but that would take 18 months or more.
Katherine Dedyna / Times Colonist
August 16, 2015 06:00 AM
Click on photo to be redirected to the full article
Mothers hold pictures of their children who died after using fentanyl. From left: Leslie McBain, with a photo of her son, Jordan Miller, who died at 25; Donna May, with Jac, who was 35; Jennifer Woodside, with Dylan Bassler, 21; and Petra Schulz, with Danny Schulz, 25.
A group of mothers who have lost adult children to drug addiction — sometimes by taking just one fentanyl pill — are pushing past their grief to mobilize changes in health policy they say could save many other lives.
Moms United and Mandated to Saving the lives of Drug Users, or mumsDU, kicked off a cross-Canada media campaign in Saanich last week, breaking the silence they say surrounds addiction-related deaths, on the rise due to the synthetic painkiller fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
The group says there is an urgent need to legislate easier access to naloxone, the drug antidote to fentanyl and other opioids such as morphine, heroin, methadone and oxycodone. Currently, a doctor’s prescription is required for the antidote, which can restore normal breathing after opioids have impaired respiration.
Health Canada recently acknowledged that naloxone has been used safely in Canadian hospitals for more than 40 years and plans to review broader access, but that would take 18 months or more.
photo credit: Monica Martinez
Mothers who lost children to fentanyl overdoses push for drug policy change
Posted By: Monica Martinez on: August 13, 2015In: News, Top Stories
click on photo to be redirected to full article and video
United in grief, these mothers are now uniting in action coming together in Victoria to work on an action plan to raise awareness on what they are calling a national health crisis.
“It’s an epidemic. If this was people dying of food poisoning or car accidents or any other reason we would have an outreach national strategies but it seems that our children don’t matter,” said Schulz.
Posted By: Monica Martinez on: August 13, 2015In: News, Top Stories
click on photo to be redirected to full article and video
United in grief, these mothers are now uniting in action coming together in Victoria to work on an action plan to raise awareness on what they are calling a national health crisis.
“It’s an epidemic. If this was people dying of food poisoning or car accidents or any other reason we would have an outreach national strategies but it seems that our children don’t matter,” said Schulz.
Fentanyl: prevent death through harm reduction-mumsDU mom interviewed on Simi Sara radio broadcast, Victoria BC Wed., Aug. 12, 2015
click on photo to listen to broadcast and read write up |
 photo credit: mumsDU
CTV News-Vancouver Island
click on photo to watch video |
photo credit: mumsDU
CBC RADIO - ON THE COAST | Aug 13, 2015 | 6:27
Fentanyl-related overdoses draw moms together in advocacyJennifer Woodside's son Dylan overdosed after taking OxyContin laced with fentanyl. "I don't want his death to be in vain," she said.
click on photo to listen to broadcast
Fentanyl-related overdoses draw moms together in advocacyJennifer Woodside's son Dylan overdosed after taking OxyContin laced with fentanyl. "I don't want his death to be in vain," she said.
click on photo to listen to broadcast
photo credit: mumsDU
"We are not ashamed of him" mother honours son who overdosed on fentanyl.
CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Tuesday, August 11, 2015 10:21AM EDT
click on photo to be redirected to full video and article
The death of child is devastating, but Schulz said she and her family faced an additional blow.
“When you lose a child to addiction, there’s an initial stigma that’s attached to it,” she said. “While we were sad about the fact that Danny died, we are not ashamed of him, what he did or who he was.”
CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Tuesday, August 11, 2015 10:21AM EDT
click on photo to be redirected to full video and article
The death of child is devastating, but Schulz said she and her family faced an additional blow.
“When you lose a child to addiction, there’s an initial stigma that’s attached to it,” she said. “While we were sad about the fact that Danny died, we are not ashamed of him, what he did or who he was.”