Innovations in responding to street drugs - The SafeGrowth Person of the Year

The magnificent scenery of Prince George, BC, Canada 
- photo Creative Commons Wikipedia

by Gregory Saville

I recently visited Prince George, a beautiful city of 75,000 surrounded by the lush forests, rivers, and lakes of northern British Columbia. It is a northern regional rail center for Pacific freight to cities in the east and a major producer of lumber products. If you want an outdoor experience like no other, and friendly people to guide you, Prince George has lots to offer. 

It also suffers the same homelessness, toxic street drugs, and crime as every other major city in North America. Except, Prince George must also contend with climate refugees escaping towns and First Nations communities from the worst spring wildfire season on record. 

HARM REDUCTION

In some ways, Prince George is an innovator in responding to their blight issues, particularly the street drug situation. On one hand, Prince George suffers the same toxic street drugs, overdose deaths, crime and homelessness as cities everywhere. On the other hand, the British Columbia approach is rooted in harm reduction. Those knowledgeable in crime prevention and drug abuse know very well that the criminal justice system, as necessary as it is, cannot effectively dig at root problems that are better suited to social services and public health systems.

Prince George is one of many cities employing supervised safe injection sites, places where professional medical staff can supervise addicts to avoid overdoses and hopefully help them get off drugs (which also means getting them off of the offender/victimization wheel of crime). It is only a small step in the overall crime prevention/livability journey, but it is a necessary one that eases the suffering of street addicts. 

Downtown businesses suffer vandalism 

It also makes a major impact on overdose deaths and the resources to deal with them. A single overdose requires police, paramedics, hospital emergency nurses, doctors, and social workers. Last year alone, Prince George paramedics had over 1,000 calls for overdoses costing millions of dollars and, more importantly, terrible suffering for the addicts and their families. 

Safe places for harm reduction create a necessary first level of services to help addicts. The benefits are legion.

JORDAN STEWART

I met some remarkable community members in Prince George who were making a difference - city officials, business people, police, and by-law officers, people who are dedicated to making things better. I met provincial health officials from the safe injection site. Remarkable people, all.

Jordan Stewart, with her son, on a break at work 

And then I met Jordan Stewart, an indigenous First Nations woman who works downtown at a harm reduction storefront called The Pounds Project Society

Jordan is a former drug addict and homeless person herself. After struggling with her demons for years, she managed to claw her way back to a life of purpose. She got off drugs and off the street. She went to university, graduated with a nursing degree, and became a professional nurse focused on public health and drug addiction. She chose to pay it forward and confront a very dark part of the world that she herself knew all too well. She chose to make a difference. 

First, Jordan realized that half of the overdoses were from inhalation, a situation not yet addressed by the injection programs. Because she is a former drug addict, she knew that addicts who were inhaling were just as likely to die from an overdose. 

The Pounds Project - a comfortable, safe place (with a bathroom)
to supervise addicts and avoid overdoses

Then she founded a storefront project – the Pounds Project - with all the necessary approvals and volunteers, to help run it. She started small with a refurbished container and gradually located a storefront downtown where addicts could access services. She has been running this center for years and has not had overdoses at her center. Street people are able to find a safe space and a bathroom – something many communities forget to provide, and then wonder why they have public health issues near homeless encampments. 

A LEADER BY ANOTHER NAME 

It is a truly remarkable story of survival and commitment, superseded only by an inspiring young woman named Jordan Stewart. I doubt if Jordan would consider herself a community leader but, from what I could see, she is as impressive as any community leader I have seen in 30 years of doing this work.

Years ago I nominated people who represented all that is good in community leadership and SafeGrowth - outstanding citizens who give of themselves and make a better world. 

In 2009 it was Sarah Buffie in Cincinnati, and in 2015 it was Amelia Price in Philadelphia. I have not nominated anyone for SafeGrowth of the Year Award for a while, and Jordan has never been trained in the method. But it is obvious that Jordan Stewart fits into that rarified category of someone making a difference. 

People like this are hard to find. They inspire others. 

She certainly inspired me.

DEPRESSING POSTSCRIPT 

As I wrote this, I learned that the Pounds Project was defunded. Jordan and her team are faced with the unhappy choice of closing down their operations and turning away needy people in Prince George. It is hard to imagine the reasoning behind such a decision, especially given the inevitable increases in overdose deaths. There will no doubt be increases for police and hospital services, along with paramedic calls for services, as if those workloads were not already too high. What a shame. 

Jordan, her team, and the city of Prince George deserve better!