{"id":96618,"date":"2025-09-02T12:46:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T16:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=96618"},"modified":"2025-09-02T12:46:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T16:46:20","slug":"a-day-to-mark-thousands-lost-to-unregulated-toxic-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/02\/a-day-to-mark-thousands-lost-to-unregulated-toxic-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day to Mark Thousands Lost to Unregulated Toxic Drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Gamage, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee More than 18,000 British Columbians have died due to unregulated toxic drugs in the province over the last decade. On Sunday, around 100 people gathered at Vancouver\u2019s Oppenheimer Park to mourn and celebrate the lives of their lost friends and family and mark International Overdose Awareness Day. Similar gatherings were held across the province and country. At 1 p.m. the B.C. groups held a minute of silence for the dead, which was then followed by a minute where those gathered said the names of those they\u2019d lost out loud. \u201cWe want this solemn event to shake the government as much as possible,\u201d said Dave Hamm, vice-president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users. \u201cIt\u2019s a celebration of life for those… <\/p>\n

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By Michelle Gamage, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee More than 18,000 British Columbians have died due to unregulated toxic drugs in the province over the last decade. On Sunday, around 100 people gathered at Vancouver\u2019s Oppenheimer Park to mourn and celebrate the lives of their lost friends and family and mark International Overdose Awareness Day. Similar gatherings were held across the province and country. At 1 p.m. the B.C. groups held a minute of silence for the dead, which was then followed by a minute where those gathered said the names of those they\u2019d lost out loud. \u201cWe want this solemn event to shake the government as much as possible,\u201d said Dave Hamm, vice-president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users. \u201cIt\u2019s a celebration of life for those... <\/p>\n

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Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"\nA Day to Mark Thousands Lost to Unregulated Toxic Drugs - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/02\/a-day-to-mark-thousands-lost-to-unregulated-toxic-drugs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Day to Mark Thousands Lost to Unregulated Toxic Drugs - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Michelle Gamage, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Tyee More than 18,000 British Columbians have died due to unregulated toxic drugs in the province over the last decade. On Sunday, around 100 people gathered at Vancouver\u2019s Oppenheimer Park to mourn and celebrate the lives of their lost friends and family and mark International Overdose Awareness Day. Similar gatherings were held across the province and country. At 1 p.m. the B.C. groups held a minute of silence for the dead, which was then followed by a minute where those gathered said the names of those they\u2019d lost out loud. \u201cWe want this solemn event to shake the government as much as possible,\u201d said Dave Hamm, vice-president of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users. \u201cIt\u2019s a celebration of life for those\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/02\/a-day-to-mark-thousands-lost-to-unregulated-toxic-drugs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-02T16:46:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/02\\\/a-day-to-mark-thousands-lost-to-unregulated-toxic-drugs\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/02\\\/a-day-to-mark-thousands-lost-to-unregulated-toxic-drugs\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"A Day to Mark Thousands Lost to Unregulated Toxic Drugs\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-02T16:46:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/02\\\/a-day-to-mark-thousands-lost-to-unregulated-toxic-drugs\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":2029,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/02\\\/a-day-to-mark-thousands-lost-to-unregulated-toxic-drugs\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2025\\\/09\\\/02\\\/a-day-to-mark-thousands-lost-to-unregulated-toxic-drugs\\\/\",\"name\":\"A Day to Mark Thousands Lost to Unregulated Toxic Drugs - 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