Let's talk about young people in Vancouver. They were in their late teens when COVID hit. Some could not cope. They overdosed, some intentionally, some accidentally. And their boyfriends and girlfriends had to go on without them.
I lost my first love in a car accident. I was 19. I don't think I ever recovered. You don't. But my dad had died when I was 11, so death and I had met before.
Now those teenagers are adults, IF they survived.
They may have lost a mom, a dad, a cousin, a best friend. Overdose is killing people, but GRIEF is a HUGE part of the path that leads them there. And it's so hard when you see it happening.
But we have the most ridiculous, insane privacy laws, so a mom can't ask a doctor for help because that information is privileged.
THIS IS WHERE I GET ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS.
They locked up hundreds of kids during COVID for suicidal ideation, but then gave them no support.
They're supposedly in charge after a kid turns 12.
You know what?
FUCK YOU. FUCK OFF.
Fuck all you doctors, nurses and everyone hiding behind privacy when people are dying. You are indirectly contributing to the deaths of people who desperately need help.
It's why I hate Big Pharma and these laws that I believe protect the system more than the people who need it.
WAKE UP!
THERE'S A WAR ON OUR KIDS. A WAR ON THE POOR.
I am exhausted from trying to fight.
I am leaving for Mexico.
I am going to FIGHT BACK WITH ART. WARRIOR UP WITH ART.
I ask you to do the same.
10 hard questions about grief, overdose and our young people
1\. Doctors and nurses: What happens when a parent knows their child is in trouble but cannot get the information or support they need? Who is responsible when that young person dies?
2\. Medical professionals: Have we become so focused on privacy rules and procedures that we sometimes lose sight of the human being who is suffering?
3\. Drug companies: How much money have you made from a system that treats addiction while failing to address the grief, trauma and despair that can contribute to it?
4\. Doctors, nurses and drug companies: How much attention, funding and research are going toward understanding the connection between profound grief and overdose?
5\. Mental health professionals: When young people were in crisis during COVID, what long-term support was provided after the immediate emergency passed? Who followed up?
6\. Parents and families: Why should a mother or father have to fight through a maze of rules and bureaucracy to get help for a child they believe is in danger?
7\. Health-care policymakers: If a young person is legally able to make certain health-care decisions at 12, what safeguards ensure that struggling children and their families are not left without meaningful support?
8\. Drug companies and governments: Why are we not investing far more in grief counselling, addiction prevention, community support and accessible mental-health care before someone reaches a crisis?
9\. Everyone working in health care: When you see a young person struggling with addiction, do you ask what they have lost, whom they have buried, and what pain they might be trying to escape?
10\. One question for every doctor, nurse, politician and drug company executive: What if it were YOUR child? What if your teenager lost their first love, watched their best friend die of an overdose, and then couldn't get the support they desperately needed? Would you still defend the system exactly as it is?
11. Educators and teachers: Are you telling our children the truth about the world they are growing up in? Are you preparing them for the war on their generation — grief, addiction, overdose, poverty, homelessness and the loss of people they love? Are you teaching them how to recognize suffering, ask for help, support one another and survive when life falls apart? Or are we sending them into adulthood unprepared for the battles ahead? What if it were your own child who had to face those battles alone?
And one final question for all of us:
How many more young people must we lose before we stop treating grief as something people should simply get over?
💔 Grief is real. Addiction is real. These lives are real. What are we going to do about it?
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