Misinformation a central barrier to harm reduction work, say advocates

Groups working to reduce the harm caused by illegal drug use on P.E.I. say their work is being hindered by misinformation, some of which is promoted by Charlottetown city councillors.

Members of the Native Council of P.E.I. and PEERS Alliance who are involved in harm reduction say their staff have found themselves the target of anger over drug addiction in the province.

"Many of them have received death threats, as well as other threats of violence toward them and of harassment," Bradley Cooper, chief policy analyst of the Native Council of P.E.I., told Island Morning host Mitch Cormier during a live panel discussion on harm reduction.

Tessa Rogers, harm reduction manager for PEERS Alliance, said her staff is not as visible as the Native Council's, which spends more time on the street, but they have not been immune.

Rogers blames displaced anger, but that doesn't make the aggression less real.

"There has been an ongoing safety concern, specifically within social media and people just being harassed and their face being posted," she said.

"There's a lot of community members who want to throw stones, as harsh as that sounds. I think the reality is a lot of us are dependent on something — whether that is caffeine, whether that is shopping. We all have something."

Harm reduction on P.E.I. includes needle exchanges and strips for testing street drugs for fentanyl.

These programs have been accused of enabling drug addicts, but Cooper said it is about saving lives.

"Our most frequently accessed service is just somebody to talk to, somebody to listen, somebody to connect with," he said.

"Within the Indigenous ways, we look at health not only being a physical thing, but looking at it being an emotional, a mental, a spiritual, a relational thing." 

Perceptions of harm reduction are growing worse in the city, said Cooper, partly driven by opinions voiced at Charlottetown City Council.

Coun. Mitchell Tweel in particular has called for the Community Outreach Centre, which offers services to homeless people, to be entirely shut down.

"It can be very disheartening," said Cooper, of the tenor of debate at city council.