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White Rock film screening looks at Vancouver's toxic drug crisis

South Rock Social Justice Society hosted the filming at White Rock Community Centre

A local social justice group hosted a screening of the film Toxic, taking the viewer into the heart of the toxic drug crisis in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

The crisis is not isolated to Vancouver but is affecting people across B.C. — so much so that the crisis is the leading preventable cause of death in the province for those aged 10 to 59.

The film was shown at White Rock Community Centre Friday (Jan. 31). The screening was hosted by the newly named South Rock Social Justice Society, formerly White Rock Social Justice Film Society. Tickets for the event were free, with a suggested $10 donation at the door.

After the screening, film director Robert Colbourne and guests Guy Felicella, a harm reduction and recovery advocate, and Daniel Snyder from Langley Community Action Team took time to share their stories and answer questions from those in attendance.

"Change only comes from understanding," Colbourne said. "So that's what this film was made to do: become an instrument of change and help people understand what the issue really looks like from the lens of a lot of different people."

The film interviewed a variety of different people directly impacted by the opioid crisis, from first responders and social workers to those struggling with addiction. 

"I think it's really important to understand what firefighters see every day, what parents are dealing with, what people that are struggling with addiction are dealing with themselves, and you can see all the messaging in there where there was some sort of trauma," Colbourne said. 

Snyder shared his story of a 15-year heroin addiction, which did not take place in the Downtown Eastside but in his home. The stigma surrounding drug use prevented him from seeking help for a long time and drove him further into isolation.

The BC Coroners Service noted that 48 percent of unregulated drug deaths occurred inside private residences in 2024.

"In Langley, where I'm from, that number is as high as 75 per cent. We have this visual component of the toxic drug crisis of what we can see in front of us, disorder on the streets, but the hidden crisis is in our houses and in our neighbourhoods and in our suburbs and people that are all around us. Men between 30 and 59 are the demographic that is hardest hit, many of them working jobs, employed, housed. That was my story as well. I never ended up on the Downtown Eastside."

"My goal when I share and talk about my life experience and talk about the toxic drug crisis is really largely to begin shifting the cultural narrative and challenging all of us to think deeply about where our biases sit when we think about substance use and people who use drugs," Snyder said.

"We have demonized the people who use drugs."

'Human connection' is the key

"Decriminalization policy is about decriminalizing people because you heard very powerfully how the theme of connection, human connection, is truly the antidote for those that are struggling with substance use disorders but for the last 100 years, our approach, defined by policy, has been to disconnect from those people. Instead, we criminalize them. We other them."

Changing the drug supply is a policy issue that requires a move toward regulation.

"We are in a crisis where the drugs are controlled by criminal gangs, and we are giving them that power," Snyder said. "When I talk to people about their greatest fears around moving towards a regulation model, they me tell things like out-of-control addiction, they're afraid of that, they're afraid of overdoses, they're afraid of violence, they're afraid of gangs, they're afraid of all these crazy things happening. Isn't that what's already happening?"

"We do not have the ability as a culture to have empathy and see ourselves in the lives of those who are suffering the most," Snyder said.

Guy Felicella said the rhetoric and politicization around the toxic drug crisis has only created a further divide. 

The best approach to tackling the crisis, he says, is using all the tools, such as harm reduction and access to detox and treatment services. 

People need to be given the proper tools and support. 

"You have to always remember that there's a factor behind why people can't cope with what they're dealing with, and trauma is one of those things," Felicella said

"You can't walk in the front door of a treatment facility and walk on the back and expect your life to get better, especially when after 60 days and the 90-day program, you're homeless again," Felicella said. "If you do not give people an opportunity at a life, then don't expect them to change what they're doing."

"The treatment industry solely focuses on a couple of components of the drug aspect, the addiction aspect, but you can't deal with a lifetime of trauma in three months," Felicella added. 

Out of sight, out of mind does not work 

"If you complain about people using substances on the street and you complain about seeing people who are homeless, but you don't support services or resources in your neighbourhood, then the problem doesn't go away," he added.

What has happened for decades and continues to be that people are "pushed" from community to community, from town to town.

"The majority of people in the Downtown Eastside, myself included, weren't from the Downtown Eastside. We couldn't access services and resources in our own communities, and so we went to there and then once you get to trapped in that lifestyle, it is so hard to break out."

Felicella spent 31 years trying to leave the Downtown Eastside. He wanted to go, but the problem was the same level of resources, and the housing was not in his hometown of Richmond.

Also, the unregulated drugs on the street that are available today are highly potent and addictive and very hard to come off, Felicella added. 

"I don't ever know that I was using fentanyl or not, but I never overdosed in 25 years, and in 2012 and 2013, I overdosed six times in nine months," he said.  

Snyder added that he knows he would not be alive today if he were still addicted to heroin.

"All my use was alone, hidden behind closed doors, but it was pre-fentanyl saturation, and so I acutely know that I wouldn't be alive today if fentanyl had saturated the supply the way it has now," he added. 

A BC Coroners report released Tuesday (Feb. 4) noted that "fentanyl and its analogues continue to be the primary driver of unregulated drug toxicity deaths in B.C." It was detected in 78 per cent of unregulated drug deaths that underwent toxicology testing. 

'Recovery is a journey of discovery'

Recovery is a journey, and due to the highly potent and addictive drugs on the streets today, many people do not have the same time and space to recover. 

"Recovery is a journey of discovery. It is a journey of finding out who you are, what you're about, what the pain and the trauma it is that's underneath your substance use, if it drives it forward," Snyder said. 

Felicella encourages people to talk to their kids and loved ones about prevention.

"I never tell somebody not to use drugs, but what I do is share my story, which tells people you might want to think before you start using drugs and because, you know, if telling people not to use drugs actually worked, then why hasn't it."

"The question that we have to start asking ourselves is what are we doing wrong in our world, where so many people are actually gravitating to use these substances, especially at a very early age, and what can we do better as a society to make sure that people don't go that route," Felicella said.

Close to 100 people attended the screening, and a quarter of them raised their hands when asked who had lost someone to toxic drugs crisis.

-With files from Sobia Moman



Anna Burns

About the Author: Anna Burns

I cover breaking news, health care, non-profits and social issues-related topics for the Surrey Now-Leader.
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