Vernon group opposed to making overdose education mandatory for students

Sep 6, 2022 | 12:00 PM

Efforts to make overdose education mandatory in B.C. schools are being called alarming by a Vernon group.

“Some of the recent media articles published are alarming,” Sherman Dahl of the Emily Dahl Foundation, which promotes kindness and compassion, said. “Some are advocating the Ministry of Education to mandate secondary schools to have speakers or education on drug use and experimentation. At The Emily Dahl Foundation, we want the Ministry of Education to mandate mindfulness training. That would make a tremendous difference and get us on a path of kindness and awareness.”

Dahl believes promoting policies of harm reduction is not the best way to prevent people from using drugs.

“The best way is to not use drugs and to help others practice [that],” Dahl stated.

“Learning the art of mindfulness is the way to restore our balance and transform the pain and loneliness that are already in us. To do this, we have to practice together. The practice of mindful consuming should become a national policy. It should be considered true peace education,” he said.

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Dahl maintains people who are destroying themselves, their families, and their society by intoxicating themselves are not doing it intentionally.

“Their pain and loneliness are overwhelming, and they want to escape. They need to be helped. Only understanding and compassion on a collective level can liberate us,” he said.

Dahl’s comments come after a story from The Canadian Press about efforts to get B.C.’s Education Ministry to make overdose education mandatory in B.C. schools.

Simon Fraser University student Chloe Goodison is among a number of advocates who deliver overdose education to students but want it to become a staple of the curriculum.

They say it is a matter of urgency in a province that has suffered more than 10,000 deaths since it declared the toxic drug supply to be a public health emergency in April 2016.

Goodison focused her studies on public health at Simon Fraser, where she won a community project grant for NaloxHome, which is part of a plan approved by the Fraser Health Authority. Since its launch last year, NaloxHome recruited 30 volunteers and gave presentations to about 2,000 students at high schools in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody through an arrangement with the school district, Goodison said.

She hopes to expand the presentations to Burnaby this fall but wants students across B.C. to have access to similar information.

“My dream would be for this to one day be taken out of my hands and taken on by the education ministry,” Goodison said.

The ministry said it’s up to each school district to determine the delivery of any programs, including whether to stock naloxone kits or train teachers how to use them.

“This September, our ministry will share with school districts information that includes a risk assessment tool that supports schools and districts in determining whether to stock naloxone, how to order naloxone kits and where to access training on administering naloxone,” it said in a written statement.

However, the ministry did not say whether it would consider including overdose prevention in the school curriculum. It said some programs related to drugs are already available to teachers, including an optional one online called iMinds, which critics say doesnt include anything about the risks related to drug use.

(With files from The Canadian Press)

by Pete McIntyre

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