By Spencer Sterritt

Overdose crisis march fills Diana Krall Plaza

Feb 21, 2017 | 3:36 PM

NANAIMO — Anyone walking through downtown Nanaimo Tuesday unaware of the overdose crisis affecting the city left with more knowledge than ever before.

Dozens of supporters and signs emblazoned with the hashtag #lifewontwait filled Diana Krall Plaza at noon to spread awareness about the unfortunate reality in Nanaimo for the first National Day of Action. Earlier in the day instructions and tutorials about how to use a naloxone kit were held.

Event co-organizer and registered nurse Isabel Flood said smaller communities are suffering from the fentanyl crisis in the shadow of larger cities such as Vancouver and Victoria.

“We’ve had very high overdose rates per capita, some of the highest in the province. We need to bring attention to this issue,” she said. “We need safer consumption sites in Nanaimo and other places in North and Central island and we need that yesterday.”

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By the end of January, four had died of an illicit drug overdose in Nanaimo, according to the Coroner. In 2016, 28 people passed away in total.

Flood noted much of the focus has been on Victoria, who are in the grip of their own overdose crisis.

“It’s Island Health, not Victoria Health,” she said.

Some march attendees weren’t as involved in the cause but felt their voice needed to be heard.

Vancouver Island University student Melanie Elphinstone said she was compelled to come because of a presentation to her class by event organizer and pop-up injection site volunteer Jeremy Kalicum. She said she agreed with ideas of decriminalizing drugs.

“I do think a lot of people get into crime from buying drugs from criminals and I think more attention needs to be given to issues like this,” she said. “I think people just ignore them because they’re not out in the open.”

spencer.sterritt@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit