Jessica Michalofsky's son Aubrey died from toxic drug poisoning last August. Since then, she has run hundreds of kilometres in his name to push the provincial government to provide more access to safe supplies of illicit drugs. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

safe supply

‘Dead people can’t recover:’ Aubrey’s Run to End Toxic Drug Deaths stops in Nanaimo

Jun 22, 2023 | 4:16 PM

NANAIMO — A mother who lost her son to illicit toxic drugs is turning her grief and pain into action.

Jessica Michalofsky is running across the province to raise awareness and support for safe supply. She is near the tail end of her months-long run across B.C. from Nelson to Victoria in honour of her son Aubrey, who died from toxic drug poisoning in August 2022.

She said, during a Thursday, June 22 stop in Nanaimo, when it comes to treating people with substance use disorder the medical system needs to be fully focused on recovery instead of punishment.

“He was an awesome kid. He had been on methadone, and he found the methadone program too punitive, and he lived too far away from a methadone provider for him to be able to count on that program. So when he turned to the illicit supply, it killed him.”

Michalofsky stopped at Maffeo Sutton Park on her way to Victoria, where they will hold a rally outside the legislature on Sunday, June 25, where they will be joined by chief coroner Lisa Lapointe.

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She said her son and the children of thousands of other parents would still be here today if they had access to helpful, non-prejudice medical attention.

“The (provincial) government should be held accountable for these deaths because they know that the supply is toxic, and yet they refuse to provide an alternative to people who clearly have substance use disorder.”

The event was hosted by the Nanaimo Community Action Team, with support from Moms Stop the Harm, (MSTH), a network of Canadian families impacted by substance use.

Purple hearts with the names of loved ones who died from toxic drugs were posted all over Maffeo Sutton Park Thursday afternoon. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Michalofsky is calling on the provincial government to step up and make prescribed safe supply more accessible, after becoming the first province to offer a safe supply in March 2020.

“There really is no safe supply, there are a few pilot programs, and there’s a little bit of hydromorphone out there, but for people who are legitimately suffering from substance use disorder, they are relying on criminalized, toxic drugs… and that criminal economy is growing and growing, and innovating all of the time, and people continue to die.”

Jane McCormick is a member of MSTH, and lost her son on Oct. 22, 2021, to illicit drugs at the age of 35.

She said safe supply is an important aspect of reducing overdose deaths, and it’s something most people don’t fully understand.

“I myself didn’t understand it until I lived it with my son. When you see someone in the throes of addiction like that, and they try and stop before they can go into treatment if they choose, but they can’t. They get sick, really really sick, and I watched that.”

McCormick said they were able to access a safe supply from the former site at 264 Nicol St, run by the Nanaimo Area Network of Drug Users (NANDU) until it was shut down in February.

She said those sites serve the purpose of keeping users alive, “because dead people can’t recover.”

“I’m trying to get his story across in as compassionate of a way as I can, but the public is having a really hard time with understanding safe supply. And that’s the bottom line, we’re just trying to keep people alive so they can get treatment.”

In May, 176 people lost their lives in B.C. due to toxic drugs, with 1,018 reported deaths in the first five months of 2023.

Fifty-eight of those deaths have been in Nanaimo, which is the second most toxic drug-related fatalities ever recorded and on pace to overtake the record 76 deaths from last year.

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jordan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @JordanDHeyNow