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By Yvonne Sam
Contributing Columnist
As the trial of former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, in the slaying of George Floyd, got underway, deeply troubling issues came into play. The first came on March 20, when Matt Mohn, a Black freshman at Duke University, found a printout of Floyd’s toxicology report from his autopsy, slipped on a Black History Month bulletin board at the University. www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/26/duke-georgefloyd-toxicology-report-investigation/.
On the same board, there was nothing about Chauvin; neither his long record of misconduct complaints against him, nor his firing. Floyd however, had a prison record, and a toxicology report did find there were drugs in his system.
Chauvin’s defense attorney, Eric Nelson, made no secret that they would hang much of their defense of Chauvin on the opioid usage. They would argue that the nine-plus minutes of his knee on Floyd’s neck didn’t kill him, but the drugs did.
Through blinding tears and surrounded by a plexiglass divider, Courteney Ross, girlfriend to Floyd, spoke of their relationship, and shared his struggle with opioids. “Our story, it’s a classic story of how many people get addicted to opioids,” she testified. “We both suffered from chronic pain. Mine was in my neck and his was in his back.”
“Addiction, in my opinion, is a lifelong struggle,” Ross continued. “It’s not something that just kind of comes and goes. It’s something I’ll deal with, forever.”
Acceptably, addiction is a lifelong disease, filled with triumphs, setbacks and hard work that requires support and care, from both the individual’s support system and community programs.
While opioids serve an important therapeutic purpose, their potential harms, including problematic use, overdose and death, cannot be ignored or overlooked. For over a decade, the rising rate of opioid-related deaths, across Canada, has been an ongoing and significant national public health crisis. In just the first three months of 2020, there were 1,018 opioid-related deaths recorded in Canada, the vast majority of which (96%) were accidental.
On March 17, 2020, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario led to the provincial declaration of a state of emergency. Understanding the circumstances that contribute to these deaths is urgently needed, to inform interventions and policies to prevent opioid-related mortality in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As part of its Opioid Wisely campaign, Choosing Wisely Canada introduced 15 specialty-specific recommendations to help physicians determine, when opioids are not appropriate as a first-line therapy.
Stigma and misinformation continue to impede the implementation of policy and support for individuals, struggling with opioids, as drug addiction continues to be regarded as a crime, not a public health issue. People, who suffer from addiction, are still subjected to harsh judgment and derogatory language.
Such vilification is exemplified by the defense team in the Chauvin trial, as it attempts to blame George Floyd’s struggle with opioids for causing his death, rather than the knee of the policemen, pressing on his neck for 9 minutes 29 seconds.
This is the same kind of victim-blaming that makes it difficult for people, struggling with addiction, to get the help they need. All of this feeds the public’s perception that people, with addictions, do not deserve sympathy or support, which, in turn, influences policy, as well as the quality of treatment within clinical settings.
On the fiscal front, the opioid crisis has cost Canada nearly $5 billion in lost productivity, according to a study, conducted by a University of Alberta student. About 74 percent of deaths occurred among males, the largest portion, between the ages of 30 and 39.
All hope is not lost, however, as strides have been made, within Canada, to address the lack of resources and the stigmatization, faced by people struggling with opioid abuse.
Making progress on this issue means, we must stop perpetuating stigma, fear and vilification, and start spreading empathy and evidence-based treatment approaches, and not wait for one trial more, to bring national consciousness to the fore.
Yvonne Sam, a retired Head Nurse and Secondary School Teacher, is the Chair of the Rights and Freedom Committee at the Black Community Resource Centre. A regular columnist for over two decades with the Montreal Community Contact, her insightful and incursive articles on topics ranging from politics, human rights and immigration, to education and parenting have also appeared in the Huffington Post, Montreal Gazette, XPressbogg and Guyanese OnLine. She is also the recipient of the Governor General of Canada Caring Canadian Citizen Award.
