1 00:00:00,810 --> 00:00:06,090 I remember the first time that I saw people injecting drugs. 2 00:00:06,090 --> 00:00:09,640 I had just arrived in Vancouver to lead a research project 3 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:15,100 in HIV prevention in the infamous Downtown East Side. 4 00:00:15,100 --> 00:00:17,650 It was in the lobby of the Portland Hotel, 5 00:00:17,650 --> 00:00:20,560 a supportive housing project that gave rooms 6 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:22,960 to the most marginalized people in the city, 7 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:26,800 the so-called difficult to house. 8 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:29,200 I'll never forget the young woman standing 9 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:32,950 on the stairs repeatedly jabbing herself with a needle 10 00:00:32,950 --> 00:00:35,770 and screaming I can't find a vein, 11 00:00:35,770 --> 00:00:40,140 as blood splattered on the wall. 12 00:00:40,140 --> 00:00:44,100 In response to the desperate state of affairs, the drug use, 13 00:00:44,100 --> 00:00:48,780 the poverty, the violence, the soaring rates of HIV, 14 00:00:48,780 --> 00:00:53,430 Vancouver declared a public health emergency in 1997. 15 00:00:53,430 --> 00:00:56,010 This opened the door to expanding harm reduction 16 00:00:56,010 --> 00:00:58,530 services, distributing more needles, 17 00:00:58,530 --> 00:01:01,860 increasing access to methadone, and, finally, 18 00:01:01,860 --> 00:01:04,080 opening a supervised injection site. 19 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:08,910 Things that make injecting drugs less hazardous. 20 00:01:08,910 --> 00:01:12,240 But today, 20 years later, harm reduction 21 00:01:12,240 --> 00:01:15,810 is still viewed as some sort of radical concept. 22 00:01:15,810 --> 00:01:18,540 In some places it's still illegal to carry 23 00:01:18,540 --> 00:01:19,740 a clean needle. 24 00:01:19,740 --> 00:01:21,870 Drug users are far more likely to be 25 00:01:21,870 --> 00:01:25,440 arrested than to be offered methadone therapy. 26 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:28,260 Recent proposals for supervised injection sites 27 00:01:28,260 --> 00:01:31,680 in cities like Seattle, Baltimore, and New York 28 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:34,800 have been met with stiff opposition. 29 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:37,560 Opposition that goes against everything 30 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:40,300 we know about addiction. 31 00:01:40,300 --> 00:01:41,740 Why is that? 32 00:01:41,740 --> 00:01:44,190 Why are we still stuck on the idea 33 00:01:44,190 --> 00:01:48,540 that the only option is to stop using that any drug use will 34 00:01:48,540 --> 00:01:51,060 not be tolerated? 35 00:01:51,060 --> 00:01:54,780 Why do we ignore countless personal stories 36 00:01:54,780 --> 00:01:57,300 and overwhelming scientific evidence 37 00:01:57,300 --> 00:02:00,980 that harm reduction works? 38 00:02:00,980 --> 00:02:04,790 Critics say that harm reduction doesn't stop people 39 00:02:04,790 --> 00:02:07,080 from using illegal drugs. 40 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:09,770 Well, actually, that is the whole point. 41 00:02:09,770 --> 00:02:12,650 After every criminal and societal sanction 42 00:02:12,650 --> 00:02:15,800 that we can come up with people still use drugs, 43 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:19,100 and far too many die. 44 00:02:19,100 --> 00:02:21,920 Critics also say that we are giving up on people 45 00:02:21,920 --> 00:02:27,060 by not focusing our attention on treatment and recovery. 46 00:02:27,060 --> 00:02:28,740 In fact, it is just the opposite. 47 00:02:28,740 --> 00:02:30,180 We are not giving up on people. 48 00:02:30,180 --> 00:02:32,540 We know that if recovery is ever going to happen 49 00:02:32,540 --> 00:02:34,730 we must keep people alive. 50 00:02:34,730 --> 00:02:38,330 Offering someone a clean needle or a safe place to inject 51 00:02:38,330 --> 00:02:42,950 is the first step to treatment and recovery. 52 00:02:42,950 --> 00:02:45,410 Critics also claim that harm reduction 53 00:02:45,410 --> 00:02:49,980 gives the wrong message to our children about drug users. 54 00:02:49,980 --> 00:02:54,360 The last time I looked, these drug users are our children. 55 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:58,340 The message of harm reduction is that well, drugs can hurt you. 56 00:02:58,340 --> 00:03:01,250 We still must reach out to people who are addicted. 57 00:03:01,250 --> 00:03:05,750 A needle exchange is not an advertisement for drug use. 58 00:03:05,750 --> 00:03:09,770 Neither is a methadone clinic or a supervised injection site. 59 00:03:09,770 --> 00:03:13,160 What you see there are people sick and hurting, 60 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:16,980 hardly an endorsement for drug use. 61 00:03:16,980 --> 00:03:19,920 Let's take supervised injection sites, for example. 62 00:03:19,920 --> 00:03:23,570 Probably the most misunderstood health intervention ever. 63 00:03:23,570 --> 00:03:26,270 All we are saying is that allowing people 64 00:03:26,270 --> 00:03:30,770 to inject in a clean, dry space with fresh needles surrounded 65 00:03:30,770 --> 00:03:33,770 by people who care is a lot better 66 00:03:33,770 --> 00:03:37,460 than injecting in a dingy alley sharing contaminated needles 67 00:03:37,460 --> 00:03:39,470 and hiding out from police. 68 00:03:39,470 --> 00:03:42,810 It's better for everybody. 69 00:03:42,810 --> 00:03:45,810 The first supervised injection site in Vancouver 70 00:03:45,810 --> 00:03:49,710 was at 327 Carol Street, a narrow room 71 00:03:49,710 --> 00:03:52,860 with a concrete floor, a few chairs and a box 72 00:03:52,860 --> 00:03:54,150 of clean needles. 73 00:03:54,150 --> 00:03:56,460 The police would often lock it down, 74 00:03:56,460 --> 00:04:00,930 but somehow it always mysteriously reopened, often, 75 00:04:00,930 --> 00:04:03,720 with the aid of a crowbar. 76 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:05,490 I would go down there some evenings 77 00:04:05,490 --> 00:04:07,380 to provide medical care for people 78 00:04:07,380 --> 00:04:08,670 who were injecting drugs. 79 00:04:08,670 --> 00:04:11,940 I was always struck with a commitment and compassion 80 00:04:11,940 --> 00:04:15,240 of the people who operated and used this site. 81 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:18,450 No judgment, no hassles, no fear, 82 00:04:18,450 --> 00:04:20,560 lots of profound conversation. 83 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:23,820 I learned that despite unimaginable trauma, 84 00:04:23,820 --> 00:04:27,480 physical pain, and mental illness that everyone 85 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:30,630 there thought that things would get better. 86 00:04:30,630 --> 00:04:34,050 Most were convinced that some day they'd 87 00:04:34,050 --> 00:04:38,580 stop using drugs altogether. 88 00:04:38,580 --> 00:04:41,970 That room was the forerunner to North America's 89 00:04:41,970 --> 00:04:44,940 first government sanctioned supervised injection 90 00:04:44,940 --> 00:04:46,530 site called INSITE. 91 00:04:46,530 --> 00:04:50,670 It opened in September of 2003 as a three year research 92 00:04:50,670 --> 00:04:51,480 project. 93 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:54,690 The conservative government was intent on closing it down 94 00:04:54,690 --> 00:04:56,580 at the end of the study. 95 00:04:56,580 --> 00:05:00,450 After eight years, the battle to close INSITE 96 00:05:00,450 --> 00:05:02,970 went all the way up to Canada's Supreme Court. 97 00:05:02,970 --> 00:05:04,770 It pitted the government of Canada 98 00:05:04,770 --> 00:05:08,130 against two people with a long history of drug use 99 00:05:08,130 --> 00:05:11,250 who knew the benefits of INSITE firsthand, Dean 100 00:05:11,250 --> 00:05:14,370 Wilson and Shelley Tomic. 101 00:05:14,370 --> 00:05:16,470 The court ruled in favor of keeping 102 00:05:16,470 --> 00:05:19,530 INSITE open by nine to zero. 103 00:05:19,530 --> 00:05:22,590 The justices were scathing in their response 104 00:05:22,590 --> 00:05:24,720 to the government's case. 105 00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:28,710 And I quote, "The effect of denying the services of INSITE 106 00:05:28,710 --> 00:05:31,530 to the population that it serves and the correlate have 107 00:05:31,530 --> 00:05:33,870 increased in their risk of death and disease 108 00:05:33,870 --> 00:05:36,690 to injection drug users is grossly 109 00:05:36,690 --> 00:05:39,540 disproportionate to any benefit that Canada 110 00:05:39,540 --> 00:05:43,470 might derive from presenting a uniform stance 111 00:05:43,470 --> 00:05:47,540 on the possession of narcotics." 112 00:05:47,540 --> 00:05:50,390 This was a hopeful moment for harm reduction. 113 00:05:50,390 --> 00:05:54,290 Yet, despite this strong message from the Supreme Court, 114 00:05:54,290 --> 00:05:57,770 it was, until very recently, impossible 115 00:05:57,770 --> 00:06:00,800 to open up any new sites in Canada. 116 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:02,690 There was one interesting thing that 117 00:06:02,690 --> 00:06:06,560 happened in December of 2016 when 118 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:10,400 due to the overdose crisis, the government of British Columbia 119 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:15,170 allowed the opening of overdose prevention sites. 120 00:06:15,170 --> 00:06:18,530 Essentially ignoring the federal approval process, 121 00:06:18,530 --> 00:06:21,110 community groups opened up about 22 122 00:06:21,110 --> 00:06:24,080 of these de facto illegal supervised injection 123 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:26,600 sites across the province. 124 00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:29,000 Virtually overnight, thousands of people 125 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:31,160 could use drugs under supervision. 126 00:06:31,160 --> 00:06:33,200 Hundreds of overdoses were reversed 127 00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:36,530 by naloxone and nobody died. 128 00:06:36,530 --> 00:06:40,370 In fact, this is what's happened at INSITE over the last 14 129 00:06:40,370 --> 00:06:41,200 years. 130 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:46,340 75,000 different individuals have injected illegal drugs, 131 00:06:46,340 --> 00:06:49,580 more than 3 and 1/2 million times, 132 00:06:49,580 --> 00:06:52,290 and not one person has died. 133 00:06:52,290 --> 00:06:55,970 Nobody has ever died at INSITE. 134 00:06:58,950 --> 00:07:00,150 So there you have it. 135 00:07:00,150 --> 00:07:04,350 We have scientific evidence and successes 136 00:07:04,350 --> 00:07:08,850 from needle exchanges, methadone and supervised injection sites. 137 00:07:08,850 --> 00:07:12,300 These are commonsense, compassionate approaches 138 00:07:12,300 --> 00:07:16,680 to drug use that improve health, bring connection, and greatly 139 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:20,540 reduce suffering and death. 140 00:07:20,540 --> 00:07:23,630 So why haven't harm reduction programs taking off? 141 00:07:23,630 --> 00:07:30,720 Why do we still think that drug use is law enforcement issue? 142 00:07:30,720 --> 00:07:34,460 Our disdain for drugs and drug users goes very deep. 143 00:07:34,460 --> 00:07:37,810 We are bombarded with images and media stories 144 00:07:37,810 --> 00:07:40,600 about the horrible impacts of drugs. 145 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:43,960 We have stigmatized entire communities. 146 00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:48,550 We applaud military inspired operations that bring down 147 00:07:48,550 --> 00:07:53,170 drug dealers, and we appear unfazed by building more jails 148 00:07:53,170 --> 00:07:58,960 to incarcerate people whose only crime is using drugs. 149 00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:01,930 Virtually millions of people are caught up 150 00:08:01,930 --> 00:08:04,900 in a hopeless cycle of incarceration, violence, 151 00:08:04,900 --> 00:08:09,730 and poverty that has been created by our drug laws 152 00:08:09,730 --> 00:08:12,900 and not the drugs themselves. 153 00:08:12,900 --> 00:08:15,750 How do I explain to people that drug users deserve 154 00:08:15,750 --> 00:08:18,960 care and support and the freedom to live their lives when 155 00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:25,710 all we see are images of guns and handcuffs and jail cells? 156 00:08:25,710 --> 00:08:29,640 Let's be clear, criminalization is just a way 157 00:08:29,640 --> 00:08:33,000 to institutionalize stigma. 158 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,539 Making drugs illegal does nothing 159 00:08:36,539 --> 00:08:38,220 to stop people from using them. 160 00:08:41,950 --> 00:08:45,280 Our paralysis to see things differently 161 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:49,840 is also based on an entirely false narrative about drug use. 162 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:52,360 We have been led to believe that drug users are 163 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:56,110 irresponsible people who just want to get high, and then 164 00:08:56,110 --> 00:08:58,250 through their own personal failings 165 00:08:58,250 --> 00:09:02,140 spiral down into a life of crime and poverty, 166 00:09:02,140 --> 00:09:07,190 losing their jobs their families and, ultimately, their lives. 167 00:09:07,190 --> 00:09:10,860 In reality, most drug users have a story, 168 00:09:10,860 --> 00:09:15,170 whether it's childhood trauma, sexual abuse, mental illness, 169 00:09:15,170 --> 00:09:16,640 or a personal tragedy. 170 00:09:16,640 --> 00:09:18,935 The drugs are used to numb the pain. 171 00:09:22,130 --> 00:09:25,940 We must understand that as we approach 172 00:09:25,940 --> 00:09:29,210 people with so much trauma. 173 00:09:29,210 --> 00:09:33,710 At its core our drug policies are really a social justice issue. 174 00:09:34,210 --> 00:09:37,970 While the media may focus on overdose deaths like Prince 175 00:09:37,970 --> 00:09:41,360 and Michael Jackson, the majority of the suffering 176 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:45,710 happens to people who are living on the margins, the poor 177 00:09:45,710 --> 00:09:47,570 and the dispossessed. 178 00:09:47,570 --> 00:09:50,920 They don't vote, they are often alone. 179 00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:55,040 They are society's disposable people. 180 00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:59,970 Even within health care, drug use is highly stigmatized. 181 00:09:59,970 --> 00:10:03,080 People using drugs avoid the health care system. 182 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:05,670 They know that once engaged in clinical care 183 00:10:05,670 --> 00:10:08,820 or admitted to hospital, they will be treated poorly, 184 00:10:08,820 --> 00:10:11,970 and their supply line, be it heroin, cocaine or crystal 185 00:10:11,970 --> 00:10:14,700 meth, will be interrupted. 186 00:10:14,700 --> 00:10:16,650 On top of that, they will be asked 187 00:10:16,650 --> 00:10:21,030 a barrage of questions that only serve to expose their losses 188 00:10:21,030 --> 00:10:22,350 and shame. 189 00:10:22,350 --> 00:10:23,757 What drugs do you use? 190 00:10:23,757 --> 00:10:25,590 How long have you been living on the street? 191 00:10:25,590 --> 00:10:28,320 Where are your children? 192 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:30,580 When were you last in jail? 193 00:10:30,580 --> 00:10:35,950 Essentially, why the hell don't you stop using drugs? 194 00:10:35,950 --> 00:10:39,570 In fact, our entire medical approach to drug use 195 00:10:39,570 --> 00:10:40,890 is upside down. 196 00:10:40,890 --> 00:10:45,060 For some reason we have decided that abstinence 197 00:10:45,060 --> 00:10:47,970 is the best way to treat this. 198 00:10:47,970 --> 00:10:51,420 If you're lucky enough, you may get into a detox program. 199 00:10:51,420 --> 00:10:54,510 If you live in a community with suboxone or methadone, 200 00:10:54,510 --> 00:10:57,480 you may get on a substitution program. 201 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:00,480 Hardly ever would we offer people what they desperately 202 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:06,040 need to survive, a safe prescription for opioids. 203 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:09,880 Starting with abstinence is like asking a new diabetic 204 00:11:09,880 --> 00:11:12,700 to quit sugar or a severe asthmatic 205 00:11:12,700 --> 00:11:15,250 to start running marathons or a depressed person 206 00:11:15,250 --> 00:11:16,480 to just be happy. 207 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:18,190 For any other medical condition, we 208 00:11:18,190 --> 00:11:21,400 would never start with the most extreme option. 209 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:23,710 What makes us think that strategy 210 00:11:23,710 --> 00:11:28,570 would work for something as complex as addiction? 211 00:11:28,570 --> 00:11:31,030 Well, unintentional overdoses are not new. 212 00:11:31,030 --> 00:11:34,150 The scale of the current crisis is unprecedented. 213 00:11:34,150 --> 00:11:39,460 The Center for Disease Control estimated that 64,000 Americans 214 00:11:39,460 --> 00:11:43,810 died of a drug overdose in 2016, far exceeding car crashes 215 00:11:43,810 --> 00:11:45,700 or homicides. 216 00:11:45,700 --> 00:11:49,270 Drug related mortality is now the leading cause 217 00:11:49,270 --> 00:11:52,600 of death among men and women between 20 and 50 218 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:55,150 years old in North America. 219 00:11:55,150 --> 00:11:57,260 Think about that. 220 00:11:57,260 --> 00:12:02,290 How did we get to this point, and why now? 221 00:12:02,290 --> 00:12:04,960 There is a kind of perfect storm around opioids. 222 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:08,650 Drugs like OxyContin, Percocet, and Dilaudid 223 00:12:08,650 --> 00:12:12,160 have been liberally distributed for decades 224 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:14,890 for all kinds of pain. 225 00:12:14,890 --> 00:12:17,650 It is estimated that two million Americans are daily 226 00:12:17,650 --> 00:12:21,700 opioid users, and over 60 million people 227 00:12:21,700 --> 00:12:24,550 received at least one prescription for opioids 228 00:12:24,550 --> 00:12:26,140 last year. 229 00:12:26,140 --> 00:12:28,870 This massive dump of prescription drugs 230 00:12:28,870 --> 00:12:31,690 into communities has provided a steady source 231 00:12:31,690 --> 00:12:35,160 for people wanting to self-medicate. 232 00:12:35,160 --> 00:12:38,490 In response to this prescription epidemic, 233 00:12:38,490 --> 00:12:41,400 people have been cut off, and this has greatly 234 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:43,860 reduced the street supply. 235 00:12:43,860 --> 00:12:46,460 The unintended but predictable consequences 236 00:12:46,460 --> 00:12:48,360 is an overdose epidemic. 237 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:52,170 Many people who were reliant on a steady supply of prescription 238 00:12:52,170 --> 00:12:56,460 drugs turned to heroin and, now, the illegal drug market 239 00:12:56,460 --> 00:12:58,890 has tragically switched to synthetic drugs, 240 00:12:58,890 --> 00:13:01,140 mainly fentanyl. 241 00:13:01,140 --> 00:13:05,370 These new drugs are cheap, potent, and extremely hard to dose. 242 00:13:06,450 --> 00:13:08,585 People are literally being poisoned. 243 00:13:11,470 --> 00:13:14,260 Can you imagine if this was any other kind 244 00:13:14,260 --> 00:13:15,830 of poisoning epidemic? 245 00:13:15,830 --> 00:13:17,590 What if thousands of people started 246 00:13:17,590 --> 00:13:22,060 dying from poisoned meat or baby formula or coffee? 247 00:13:22,060 --> 00:13:24,340 We would be treating this as a true emergency. 248 00:13:24,340 --> 00:13:28,000 We would immediately be supplying safer alternatives. 249 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:30,020 There would be changes in legislation, 250 00:13:30,020 --> 00:13:34,420 and we would be supporting the victims and their families. 251 00:13:34,420 --> 00:13:36,390 But for the drug overdose epidemic 252 00:13:36,390 --> 00:13:38,430 we have done none of that. 253 00:13:38,430 --> 00:13:41,730 We continue to demonize the drugs and the people who 254 00:13:41,730 --> 00:13:46,500 use them, and blindly pour even more resources 255 00:13:46,500 --> 00:13:48,120 into law enforcement. 256 00:13:50,890 --> 00:13:53,560 So where should we go from here? 257 00:13:53,560 --> 00:13:57,070 First, we should fully embrace, fund, 258 00:13:57,070 --> 00:14:00,490 and scale up harm reduction programs across North America. 259 00:14:00,490 --> 00:14:03,340 I know that in places like Vancouver, 260 00:14:03,340 --> 00:14:07,450 harm reduction has been a lifeline to care and treatment. 261 00:14:07,450 --> 00:14:09,820 I know that the number of overdose deaths 262 00:14:09,820 --> 00:14:13,180 would be far higher without harm reduction, 263 00:14:13,180 --> 00:14:18,810 and I personally know hundreds of people who are alive today 264 00:14:18,810 --> 00:14:21,810 because of harm reduction. 265 00:14:21,810 --> 00:14:23,750 But harm reduction is just the start. 266 00:14:23,750 --> 00:14:28,070 If we truly want to make an impact on this drug crisis, 267 00:14:28,070 --> 00:14:31,940 we need to have a serious conversation about prohibition 268 00:14:31,940 --> 00:14:34,490 and criminal punishment. 269 00:14:34,490 --> 00:14:38,660 We need to recognize that drug use is, first and foremost, 270 00:14:38,660 --> 00:14:46,280 a public health issue and turn to comprehensive social and 271 00:14:46,280 --> 00:14:48,900 health solutions. 272 00:14:48,900 --> 00:14:50,880 We already have a model for how this can work. 273 00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:54,390 In 2001 Portugal was having its own drug crisis. 274 00:14:54,390 --> 00:14:57,600 Lots of people using drugs, high crime rates, 275 00:14:57,600 --> 00:14:59,490 and an overdose epidemic. 276 00:14:59,490 --> 00:15:03,390 They defied global conventions and decriminalized all drug 277 00:15:03,390 --> 00:15:04,830 possession. 278 00:15:04,830 --> 00:15:07,290 Money that was spent on drug enforcement 279 00:15:07,290 --> 00:15:11,100 was redirected to health and rehabilitation programs. 280 00:15:11,100 --> 00:15:13,050 The results are in. 281 00:15:13,050 --> 00:15:17,240 Overall drug use is down dramatically. 282 00:15:17,240 --> 00:15:19,950 Overdoses are uncommon. 283 00:15:19,950 --> 00:15:24,140 Many more people are in treatment, 284 00:15:24,140 --> 00:15:26,760 and people have been given their lives back. 285 00:15:29,330 --> 00:15:32,000 We have come so far down the road 286 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:36,110 of prohibition, punishment, and prejudice that we have become 287 00:15:36,110 --> 00:15:38,120 indifferent to the suffering that we 288 00:15:38,120 --> 00:15:40,850 have inflicted on the most vulnerable people 289 00:15:40,850 --> 00:15:42,320 in our society. 290 00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:45,920 This year even more people will get caught up 291 00:15:45,920 --> 00:15:48,620 in the illegal drug trade. 292 00:15:48,620 --> 00:15:52,940 Thousands of children will learn that their mother or father 293 00:15:52,940 --> 00:15:57,840 has been sent to jail for using drugs. 294 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:00,900 And far too many parents will be notified 295 00:16:00,900 --> 00:16:06,470 that their son or daughter has died of a drug overdose. 296 00:16:06,470 --> 00:16:10,580 It doesn't have to be this way. 297 00:16:10,580 --> 00:16:12,430 Thank you.