Two years ago, a good friend of mine died here in Prince George, along with three others over the Christmas Holidays, all from fentanyl overdoses.
One year before he died, I watched my friend Ken fight, sweat, vomit and soil his way through withdrawal from heroin, cold turkey. After three weeks, he found employment, rose quickly through the ranks and gladly helped others. After eleven months clean, his pain, regrets from the past, the company of others afflicted and this perverted unrealistic time of year for a lot of people, culminated in his succumbing to his addiction one last time.
Since that day, many thousands of our young people from across Canada have died from drug overdoses and tens of thousands have been permanently damaged both mentally and physically. Oh, what sorrow, pain and anguish for the family and loved ones of an addict, not only at their deaths but also throughout their sad, chaotic and miserable lives.
The huge financial and emotional stresses put on our police, fire, paramedics, hospital workers, social workers etc., and our whole society in general, cannot remain as the status quo. The fact that we continue to allow evil animals like the Hell's Angels and the myriad of other organized gangs to prosper while peddling their poison to our children, is beyond comprehension. They have no conscience, their tentacles reaching now into our elementary schools.
They deliver women and young girls to the horrors of drug addicted prostitution, while they send their own daughters to private schools, with their filthy millions. There should be only one destination for these premeditating murderers. It is not impossible to rid our country of these depraved, reprobate, vicious, conscienceless men and women who have made money and vice their gods. I believe if "we the people" were ever heard on this matter, there would be no place in Canada for them.
Our pathetic and anemic response to this cancer is to open safe spaces for addicts to use, providing free opiates, placing naloxone at every corner and every pocket in order to bring the dead back to life, and wagging our finger at China asking them not to allow anymore fentanyl to be shipped through the mail. I doubt sometimes whether we have the backbone or fortitude to do what is needed to protect our children and our future. We have been slowly lulled into a sickening immoral complacency that seems to be so difficult to overcome. When did we stop being our brother's keeper?
I have known a few addicts, some in recovery, and each one regretted the day they began their downward spiral to misery and, more than likely, an early death. Many are talented, caring, decent souls who come from less than ideal upbringings and at an early age were abused, either mentally, verbally, physically and far too often sexually.
Their pain is real. The truth is what it is.
Our native indigenous communities have suffered more than most from these abuses for far too long. It is difficult, but there can be a good life after addiction. I believe we should do all that is possible to help those in addiction, they are more than worth it. But we must at the same time put an end to those who perpetuate these abuses and those who continue to feed the insatiable hunger of addiction. The protections that our justice system affords these blatantly guilty, savage organizations and individuals is madness. Shame on those that have corrupted our laws in order to protect the wicked.
My friend Ken had two beautiful children and a family that never stopped loving him even after many years of worry and disappointment. He is sadly missed.
Joseph Angele
Prince George
