Her dad died of an overdose. Now this Hamilton woman is fighting for harm reduction
Kayla Hagerty knows drug users are stigmatized.
She's heard it, and seen it firsthand.
We can all admit that we have a perception of individuals who use drugs that they may not have the clearest mind or the clear speech," said the 23-year-old Carleton University student.
But when I was speaking to these people they were speaking intelligently, they were giving me feedback that was relevant."
Hagerty, who is from Hamilton, spent last summer working on a documentary with Carleton sociology professor Aaron Doyle. Hagerty went around her hometown interviewing drug users, their families and those working for harm reduction services in order to understand the effects of the pandemic on substance use disorder.
But she also has more intimate experience with the issue.
Hagerty, who is pursuing a master's degree in sociology, grew up watching Ian Harrington - her stepfather, who she calls dad" - struggle with opioid use disorder. Although at the time, she didn't know it. In May 2020, just a few months into the pandemic, he died of an overdose at age 39.
He's not alone.
Since the onset of the pandemic, calls for suspected opioid overdoses in Hamilton have surged dramatically - as has the number of opioid-related deaths. In 2020, the Hamilton Paramedic Service responded to 565 cases, while in 2021, cases shot up to 914. Meanwhile, the city recorded 124 opioid-related deaths in 2020 and 115 between January and September 2021, which put it on track for a record high.
At a recent board of health meeting, Hagerty encouraged board members to focus on implementing drug-related harm reduction measures, and recommended a Canadian Drug Policy Coalition draft framework to decriminalize simple possession of illicit substances.
Mayor Fred Eisenberger supported her delegation, asking the board to review the CDPC policy and report back with recommendations at the next meeting. Public health is already looking into the issue.
Hagerty told The Spectator that her dad's death helped her understand the effect the pandemic has had on skyrocketing opioid overdose casualties in Canada.
It's very traumatizing to see somebody who you're supposed to view as powerful and stable succumb to an illness that they can't control," Hagerty said.
Harrington had a violent past. In 2008, he was convicted of second-degree murder after Terry Auld was beaten to death in the middle of a Hamilton street. A few years later, that conviction was overturned on a technicality - but Harrington eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the case, avoiding the need for a new trial.
In 2011, he was also convicted of aggravated assault in connection with a jailhouse beating.
Hagerty said Harrington was released in 2014. In the years that followed, she thought he was sober. As a child, she said, she sensed something was wrong, but was shielded from the reality of her dad's addiction.
I didn't know that my dad was using drugs before he died," she said. He never opened up to her about it.
While Hagerty acknowledges that drugs killed Harrington, she also thinks mental health issues played a big role."
Mental health is a precursor to substance use issues," she said, adding that she believes if he had more mental health support it could have helped him avoid the drug situation altogether and then the crime situation as well."
Hagerty's documentary suggests Harrington suffered from depression in addition to his addiction. She said Harrington attempted to connect with a therapist within weeks of his death.
Across Ontario, over 2,000 opioid-related deaths were reported during the pandemic period, with more than half of those individuals interacting with the health-care system within a month of their death, a study published by Public Health Ontario in January 2022 revealed.
The study noted that although the prevalence of health-care interactions declined significantly during the pandemic, the number of patients with probable overdose was still high. This pattern points to the need for health-care professionals to engage those at risk of an overdose and connect them with low-barrier access to treatment or harm reduction services.
During the March 21 board of health meeting, Hagerty recommended the city consider four measures to combat substance use disorder, including: safe and accessible supply; decriminalization of drugs and establishing more licensed safe spaces; working alongside physicians and health-care professionals; and reviewing the CDPC draft framework for decriminalization.
Donald MacPherson, executive director of the CDPC, told The Spectator municipalities, including Hamilton, have an important leadership role in helping the public understand the need for change in approach" when it comes to substance use.
To change our drug policy means that people at local levels need to be saying strongly that old ways don't work," he said. Part of that new approach, in his opinion, is stopping criminalizing people who use drugs, and engaging them in services.
Stigmatizing people is not helping," MacPherson reiterated.
In the past two years, other municipalities, including Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, as well as the province of British Columbia have requested the federal government to decriminalize simple possession of drugs. Decriminalization is the purview of the federal government - not provinces or municipalities.
At a local level, the city said that harm reduction strategies, such as the distribution of naloxone and supervised consumption sites, recognize that people use drugs. They also support them and keep them as healthy as possible, helping to prevent accidental injury and death.
Despite these interventions, the city's opioid-related death rate of 21.1 per 100,000 people was 28 per cent higher than the provincial rate in 2020.
There's more pressure on municipal governments and provincial governments and federal governments to try new things, new approaches, and expand the amount of resources that are going to be required," MacPherson said.
Ritika Dubey is a reporter at The Spectator. rdubey@thespec.com