BC is in the middle of an overdose crisis. Do you know where your candidates stand?
Use this tool to ask them how they plan to address this public health emergency.
Not every candidate sets up a phone line. If the candidate you want to connect with doesn’t show up in the list below, try using our email tool instead.
Here’s a suggested script for you to take a look at. When you hit the ‘make the call’ button above, this script will appear on the next page, so you can see it during the call.
Hi, my name is [MY NAME]. I vote in [MY CITY].
I am calling today because I want to know what you plan to do to end the opioid crisis in BC.
- Do you know that we’re in a public healthcare emergency right now? When the crisis was announced in April 2016, 2 people on average died of a drug overdose every day. Now, 4 people die every day. That’s one person every 6 hours. Drug overdoses are now among the top 10 causes of death in BC- three times higher than the number of deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents. This is having a devastating impact on communities across the province.
- In February the federal government pledged $10 million in urgent support specifically to address the opioid crisis in British Columbia, but it has not yet been spent. These funds should be used to broaden access to clean prescription drugs and substitution therapy, and expand treatment-on-demand services to save lives and help people recover from substance use. How will your party use this funding to address this emergency?
- Experts have been clear that harm reduction strategies like heroin assisted treatment and safe injection sites are the difference between life and death. How will you ensure the resources to run and adequately support these programs?
- We need to increase access to prescription heroin so that people living with severe addiction can receive safe untainted drugs from doctors rather than taking their chances with fentanyl on the street. Do you support the expansion of heroin assisted treatment for people who are unresponsive to other treatments?
- Now is the time to act- we can’t wait any longer when we are losing people every day. The evidence supports harm reduction programs like heroin assisted treatment and supervised injection sites. If elected, how will your party support these programs?
I look forward to hearing from you.
You can call me back at [YOUR NUMBER]
