BC Opiate Users Can Recover - read our 4 action items

Dr. Bonnie Henry - #WeCanRecover

Recent comments from BC's top doctor Dr. Bonnnie Henry was quoted in a media report saying abstinence-based recovery is not possible for opiate addicts, and they should not stop using drugs. We need your support in helping Dr. Bonnie understand the harms caused by these polarizing comments that are not based on evidence, and people's lived experiences. Please support our 4 action items, and email your Member of the Legislature.

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Dear [recipient position will go here] [recipient name will go here],

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This past week a news article was published where Dr. Bonnie Henry was quoted saying

"We can’t stop people from using drugs right now,”

“Abstinence is an important treatment modality for people who have addictions to alcohol, but it does not work for opioid addiction, because it is a chronic, relapsing brain disease. And we know that abstinence is, especially in the same ways that we did it with alcohol, just doesn’t work for people who have a dependency on opioids,”

These comments are not based on science, opiate users who are addicted can be abstinent and should be supported by the medical profession if that is the pathway they choose at the starting point of their recovery journey.

Requests from the recovery community asking Dr. Bonnie Henry to retract her statements, or let us know if she was misquoted have been ignored.

Saying abstinence does not work for people with opiate use disorder is wrong, not based on evidence, and cruel to people in abstinence-based recovery.

We are asking our Members of Legislature and our Premier to ensure all British Columbians have access to all pathways of recovery, from safe-supply, to medication-assisted treatment, to abstinence-based recovery models.  These pathways should be offered from a person's initial start point of asking for help, to all of their future access points of healthcare.

We are asking our MLA's for the following four action items to be passed on to Dr. Bonnie Henry and Honourable Adrian Dix, Minister of Health:

1) Dr. Bonnie Henry publicly apologizes to all British Columbians who are abstinent from opiate addiction, as her comments dismiss their recovery journey

2) Retract her statement and clarify that some who choose abstinence recovery, will be supported by this government, for that choice

3) Meet with the Recovery Community who have chosen abstinence from opiates to overcome their addiction, so she can participate in a knowledge sharing of stories, so she can understand the actual harms she has caused with her statements to British Columbians

4) Dr. Henry and the Province of BC include people who are pro-abstinence recovery from opiate addiction, with lived experience, to be on any working groups in creating training for doctors that are intended to close gaps to addiction treatment access.

We need full support from all levels of government to fix this misconception and dangerous mindset that drug reduction, prevention, or abstinence models of recovery are not a high-level priority as part of the Province's response to overdoses.

We CAN NOT have BC’s top doctor saying that abstinence recovery does not work for opiate addiction in a carte blanche manner.

These statements belittle and minimize the thousands of British Columbians whose lives have been saved by abstinence-based recovery models.

As a voter, the overdose crisis and BC's representation of abstinence recovery is a priority of mine when deciding who I vote for. I support Harm Reduction and I support Abstinence Recovery for opiate users, I expect all these models of care to be available to all British Columbians.  I am submitting this letter asking you to please ensure the 4 action items above are turned into an action plan with deliverables.

Sincerely,
[your name will go here]
[your email address will go here] [your location will go here]

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