Opinion: Drug use stigma is real and it's killing people
Written for Daily Hive by Guy Felicella, a former resident of the DTES and drug user who is now an advocate for vulnerable people, education on addictions, and hope. He is also an international public speaker.
For over 50 years, a public campaign to wage a war on drugs has shaped public opinion, leading many to believe that those who use certain substances are somehow more flawed than those who do not. Not just flawed, but criminals deserving punishment.
The result has been generations of communities and families of those who use drugs are destroyed – because of incarceration, death from overdose, or untreated addiction – while
those who supply drugs (organized criminals) and those who are meant to limit access to those drugs (the police) have profited.
Now there’s pushback against the incremental steps being made to undo those devastating
harms.
Adam Pankratz: Maybe B.C.’s drug addicts should have to face shame and stigma https://t.co/6SUnRyHHqy
— National Post (@nationalpost) February 6, 2023
Last month, BC officially began a pilot to decriminalize small amounts of possession of
previously illegal drugs. The intention: to address the stigma that results from criminalizing
substance use, the stigma that compels people to use alone and not reach out for help when they need it.
Those opposed to this policy change, many with little or no knowledge of substance use or
addiction, came crawling out of the woodwork to raise alarms. Some have even argued that
stigma is a good thing, that shame can be motivating.
I find these arguments so frustrating and harmful. I hid my own drug use for years, and I can tell you that stigma does not inspire hope or change in a person. When people argue for punitive drug policies, they’re not motivating anyone to seek help. It has the opposite effect. It drives people to misery and loneliness.
Stigma isn’t just an internalized feeling of shame either. It’s infectious, like a disease. Stigma shapes how we treat other people. It’s institutional.
When I used drugs, I was considered to be less than human. Hospitals would turn me away when I sought help for health issues stemming from my drug use. Police thought it was okay to beat me up and dump me on the side of the road.
None of that inspired me to seek help when my drug use became an addiction. Instead, I got
higher, hoping to numb the pain and shame. When I finally did seek help through detox at Onsite, the treatment space above Onsite on Hastings Street in Vancouver – I was so embarrassed when I relapsed that I stopped using the safe injection site, a place where I had overdosed and been saved multiple times.
It wasn’t until a nurse who worked there found me using alone in public that I was forced to
face my shame, which was fueled by stigma. She encouraged me to come back and, thanks to her, when I overdosed again on two different occasions, someone was there to bring me back to life. Her concern for me and her caring words made me feel like a human of value like my life was worthwhile. That was the motivation I needed to ask for help.
Guy Felicella once lived on the Downtown Eastside for two decades before he was able to get help for his addiction. (guyfelicella.com)
This is how stigma can impact people who are recovering from their substance use addiction. It forces them to hide their own struggles because of the shame of failing. Stigma has a sort of chilling effect, it makes recovery equal perfection, and anything less than perfection equals failure. Stigma creates the narrative of failing and to a person struggling that can be a difficult and lonely journey – an impossible journey for many.
And for those who do find recovery from their addiction, many carry with them the stigma of substance use for the rest of their lives in the form of a criminal record. It’s a scarlet letter, something a person carries with them for life, impacting their ability to find work or housing.
How does that stigma help anyone?
People who’ve lived with addiction or used illicit drugs on occasion, or who’ve known and cared for someone who has, know all too well the harms that stigma creates. People who know nothing about substance use or addiction shouldn’t be testing ideas out in public forums — not when so much misunderstanding already exists and absolutely not with so many lives at risk.
Stigma is real and it’s killing people.
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