Grieving Triathlete Will Run Across British Columbia for a Safe Drug Supply

Jessica Michalofsky, indefatigable triathlete and grieving mother of a son lost to the opioid crisis, will run across British Columbia in order to rally support for a safe drug supply, in a desperate attempt to stem the flow of casualties to our adulterated street drug supply.

This initiative, titled ‘Aubrey’s Run Across BC‘, constitutes an escalation from our ongoing Marathon-a-day for a Safe Drug Supply, during which we’ve been relentlessly harrying the BC Ministry of Health by running laps around its office. So far the government has managed to ignore the initiative, offering for only overture a brief meeting last November between Jessica and Sheila Malcolmson, then Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, along with Bonnie Henry; the talks predictably aborted with respectful disagreement and a promise of drawn-out hostilities.

To ratchet up the pressure on our stubborn overlord class, Jessica will run the distance between Nelson and Victoria, for a total of roughly 800 km, between May 22nd and June 25th. The trip shall first take us from Nelson to Kelowna, then have us backtrack to Penticton before resuming toward Hope, then Vancouver, and finally across the strait to Nanaimo for a final stretch toward Victoria.

I said ‘us’ and ‘we’, because I’ll be riding along for the whole trip as a volunteer, just like I’ve been involved in the planning from the very beginning. Indulge me a short paragraph of vainglorious self-gratification, as a meagre reward for the several weeks I’ve been quietly sitting on this information.

A Call to Arms

Back on topic. Jessica has called for a press conference at the BC Ministry of Health at noon this Wednesday, when she is to officially launch the initiative, which is endorsed by Moms Stop The Harm. Her upcoming message to the public could be summarised as follows:

We need your support. We don’t want your money (actually, we do need money). What we want is more important!
We want your involvement. We want your arms, legs, and voices. We want you to run and walk with us.

Jessica Michalofsky

She invites you to follow the Marathon A Day For Safe Supply on Facebook, to receive upcoming updates and announcements as the campaign unfolds. In the meantime, every concerned citizen is encouraged to drop by on Wednesdays between 12 PM and 4 PM at 1515 Blanshard Street in Victoria to show support, whether or not one means to do any laps with us.

And we’re going to need lots of support in the lead up to the event. An application to the BC Ministry of Transportation has already been submitted, but that was just the first step in planning this humongous campaign. We need people on the ground in every locality on our itinerary to help with logistics, from providing space for public presentations to gathering crowds, distributing educational material, and even run alongside Jessica on portions of the trip. We’re planning to circulate a petition provincewide addressed to the BC Legislature, and we need as many people as possible to sign it. We’re also looking for sponsors and may even start accepting donations soon. Once again, expect updates on the campaign’s Facebook page pertaining to how every one of you can make a difference.

A Generation Lost to Stigma

Many among the public have expressed feeling powerless as the drug toxicity public health emergency keeps claiming thousands of lives nearly seven years after being announced, with no end in sight and no clear government strategy beyond naloxone and prayer. We advocates have long been clamouring for a government-regulated drug supply, like the MySafe pilot program, as opposed to a contaminated street drug supply, which has claimed another 2272 lives in this province just last year and is the leading cause of death among people aged 19-39.

In desperation, the Vancouver-based Drug User Liberation Front has even defied the authorities by reselling tested drugs bought from the Dark Web, thus overtly infringing upon the Criminal Code, so far with impunity. The provincial government’s recent drug decriminalisation initiative instead signals both eroding resolve from otherwise ill-disposed government officials and a shift in public opinion.

We the organisers of Aubrey’s Run Across BC hope to channel this recent momentum into both an education campaign and a massive protest on our roads that can sway public opinion, and ultimately our obtuse decision makers.

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PRESS RELEASE

Aubrey’s Run across BC to End Toxic Drug Death, May & June 2023

In May and June of 2023, Jessica Michalofsky will run across BC to spread awareness of toxic drug death.

Michalofsky’s son Aubrey died in 2022 from contaminated street drugs. As an expression of her grief, Jessica ran over 900km around the Ministry of Health in Victoria in the fall of 2022 in protest of the government’s slow action to stop illicit drug death.

She asked government to provide resources to families to stop preventable drug death. Moreover, she demanded that government regulate the illicit drug supply. She implored them to take back the billions of dollars of profit from criminals and invest it in the lives of our loved ones.

Though government agrees that providing safer supply is the only way to stop the rising tide of drug death, they also admit that their own progress toward saving lives is inadequate.

The rate of death in BC from toxic drugs remains at 6 British Columbians per day—a rate significantly higher than any other cause of death, including Covid. The leading cause of death in British Columbians ages 19-39 is toxic drugs (BC Coroner).

On Tuesday, February 1^st, the BC Coroner reported there were 2,272 suspected drug toxicity deaths last year, just short of the record 2,306 people who died in 2021.

In response to government inaction, Jessica will run from Nelson BC to Victoria BC, via the Okanagan in May and June of 2023, stopping in small communities to connect with rural British Columbians who often lack access to life-saving information and resources.

“Our message is that toxic drug death is preventable. Our rallies will connect people to resources and raise awareness among families about the danger of toxic drugs,” says Michalofsky.

While Aubrey’s Marathon a Day was directed at the government, Aubrey’s Run across BC is directed at young people, people who use drugs, and their families.

Michalofsky is adamant: “To battle systemic stigma, we need access to information, and we need to band together. If the government is slow to act, we will step in and help ourselves.”

Media are invited to check in outside the Blanshard Street entrance of the Ministry of Health at 12:00pm on February 8^th to arrange in-person interviews. Key contacts for phone and online interviews are below. [omitted]