54-year-old James Booker was in attendance at Maffeo Sutton Parks International Overdose Awareness Day to provide his lived experience dealing with street drugs. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

highs and lows

‘Fentanyl basically renders you unconscious:’ Nanaimo man’s battle with addiction highlights awareness event

Aug 31, 2022 | 5:21 PM

NANAIMO — Awareness, conversation and community were key themes in an event at Maffeo Sutton Park.

Wednesday, Aug. 31 marked International Overdose Awareness Day, an event with growing significance in Nanaimo and across B.C. after the toxic drug crisis was declared a public health emergency in 2016.

Nanaimo resident and musician James Booker, 54, shared his stories at the event. He currently takes methadone, a medication-assisted treatment for addiction, after using heroin regularly since the age of 23 in Vancouver.

“I don’t want to say it was a religious experience, but it was like no other drug experience I ever had, and I had a lot at that time. When you smoke heroin it doesn’t debilitate you like you see people here on fentanyl right out of their minds.”

Relationship struggles and his addiction eventually led to a move to Nanaimo in 1998 and a cleaner lifestyle.

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Booker left behind his network of friends and dealers in Vancouver, which made it easier for him to stay away from substance use.

After 13 years of sobriety, the collapse of his second marriage caused him to relapse, only this time he was getting into a world of opioids nearly entirely taken over by fentanyl.

“It was a shock to relapse into this modern world of opioids and meth….fentanyl basically renders you unconscious. You don’t feel euphoric, you’re unconscious you don’t feel anything. Heroin renders you semi-conscious, you can feel what’s happening you can hear and sense what’s going on around you.”

A memorial set up at Maffeo Sutton Park for the average of six BC residents per day who succumb to toxic drugs. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

To counteract the effects of fentanyl, Booker said people turn to other substances.

“That (meth) counterbalances the absolutely stultifying effects of fentanyl, right? It kind of wakes you up a bit so you can be at least half-awake. Back in the 90’s when I was an actual heroin addict, I never did meth, it was just not part of the heroin world.”

Booker recalled how when he was in his 20’s, he heard of people overdosing on heroin but didn’t know anybody personally. Since moving back to Nanaimo, he knows of “dozens” of people who have lost their lives in the last five to eight years.

“Most of the dope on the street right now is approximately 15 per cent fentanyl, and the rest is caffeine and a bit of flavouring.”

He said this is why awareness, education, and events like International Overdose Awareness Day are so important, to warn anybody considering trying street drugs of the extreme dangers, and why fentanyl has completely changed the drug game in such a threatening way.

“When it (fentanyl) first came on the market the dealers didn’t know what they were doing. They’re not chemists, they’re f***ing thugs, they’re gangsters. They’re not using Bunson burners and flasks, they’re using coffee grinders and hoping they mix it right.”

Unlike his experience when he started using heroin, a person trying drugs for the first time could begin with a substance laced with fentanyl, which according to the CDC, is 50 times stronger than heroin.

“If you’re used to drinking a glass of moonshine in order to get drunk, and someone gives you a glass of Coors Lite, you know how many Coors Lite you’re going to have to drink before you can feel it? It’s not going to work.”

Brooks continues to use methadone and has a place to live but no job currently.

He said he plans to take his life experience and turn it into something positive, with plans to attend the Community Mental Health Worker program at VIU.

He told NanaimoNewsNOW he understands when community members have angry and judgmental views of those who use drugs.

“There’s some real a**holes in the addict community. There’s some real a**holes in the United States Congress too. A**holes are everywhere, but if you go to the length of pushing a certain group of people out of your society, don’t be surprised if they don’t obey the laws of your society.”

More than 10,000 lives have been lost since the B.C. government first declared a public health emergency in 2016, when the powerful opioid fentanyl began showing up in toxic drug deaths.

In Nanaimo, 273 people have been lost over the same time including 33 who died from January to June of this year.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow