Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy presents... Love in the Time of Fentanyl

Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy presents a free screening of the film Love in the Time of Fentanyl on February 1, 2024 at 6pm. Doors open 5:30pm at Education Centre North, at 11210 87 Ave NW, in Room 2-115. Please use the main doors at 87 Ave, take the elevator to the 2nd floor, and proceed to Room 2-115.

The film follows members of the Overdose Prevention Society in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a community run safe use initiative fighting to save lives during this opioid poisoning crisis. Come watch this insightful moving film about the Downtown Eastside and receive powerful tools with which to engage with the opioid crisis in Canada. After the screening will be a discussion with an expert panel.

Wellness Supports at the University of Alberta has graciously provided 3 staff to provide trauma-informed support and resource referral during the event.

Panelists
Sarah Auger is with Moms Stop the Harm, a network of Canadian families impacted by substance-use-related harms and deaths. They advocate for the change of failed drug policies, provide peer support to grieving families, and assist those with loved ones who use or have used substances. She is also the Assistant Professor for the Indigenous Peoples Education & Aboriginal Teacher Education Program at University of Alberta.

Angie Staines is the founder of the 4B Harm Reduction Society (4BHRS), a non-profit organization focused on combating the drug poisoning crisis through street outreach, education, and advocacy. 4BHRS is deeply informed by Staines’ son Brandon’s 13 years of substance use and her own experience with houselessness. In addition to leading 4BHRS, she is director at large for Moms Stop the Harm and Albertans for Ethical Drug Policy. Staines was motivated to return to school at the age of 43 after witnessing the stigma and barriers that unhoused people and people who use drugs face in the medical system. She graduated in 2022 as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) in neurosciences at the University of Alberta hospital.

Brandon Shaw has struggled with houselessness and drug use his whole adolescence and adult life. This past year, with the help from his mom and team at 4B Harm Reduction Society, he has managed to get off the streets and into a stable setting. Brandon volunteers his time and shares his lived experience to facilitate and run grassroots outreach weekly for the local unhoused Edmonton community, a community that he was and is a part of. His 15 years of lived experience navigate his work and he strives to uplift the voices of his community and empower the most marginalized to share and be a part of the larger discourse. Brandon is the creator of The Curbside Philosophy and empowers others to share their stories and have a platform to both be heard and supported. Brandon believes the drug crisis is a result of failed, harmful policy and serves to engage in discourse that advocates for the need for safe supply for all.

Moderator
Holly Mathias is Holly Mathias is a PhD student and Vanier Scholar in the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. She holds a masters degree in Health Promotion (Dalhousie University). Her doctoral research uses an engaged scholarship approach to examine the gendered experiences of family caregivers of people who use drugs in rural Canada. Holly’s research is driven by her desire to generate policy relevant data to equitably support and improve the lives of people who use drugs, their families and communities in rural and remote Canada. Holly is also an active community member: she is a member of her School’s Diversity Inclusion Action Group, the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute Trainee Advisory Committee, and Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy-Edmonton Chapter.