Saskatoon mother, addictions advocate says acceptance of harm reduction still years away

Marie Agioritis is no stranger to the overdose crisis.

A mother herself, and a board member and Saskatchewan Leader for the Moms Stop The Harm network, Agioritis has become well-versed in the topic of overdose.

But it wasn’t by choice. Two of her sons’ lives were impacted by addiction, with one turning fatal in 2015.

“In 2011, when my oldest son got himself heavily invested in his drug of choice, that time was prescription-level opiates. It was a time where kids found out they could take them from (their) parent’s medicine cabinets and get high off of them. As a parent, back then, my thoughts were about alcohol, marijuana, I didn’t ever think — I never had those types of drugs around,” she explains, adding that her oldest son’s addiction led to numerous overdoses.

She said he was a great, well-versed, athletic and smart kid.

“It kind of shook us to the core. Then suddenly, on Jan. 3 of 2015, my son next to him in age dies of an overdose and what it was … really where we saw the pharmaceutical industry clampdown, essentially on what their production looked like for the opiate type products,” she said.

Agioritis’s son Kelly was just 19 years old when he died.

Back in 2015, Agioritis explained that production prevented prescription drugs from being crushed, snorted or injected, but that left an open market for fentanyl to creep in.

“You could get a pill press to your door, you could get research-grade fentanyl to your door, legally up until 2017. So we found a real illicit market, blossoming but no controls,” she explained.

Her involvement with Moms Stop The Harm began shortly after that, with three other mothers from British Columbia and Alberta. In the fall of 2016, the network — which links other grieving mothers who lost a child to overdose — was born.

Since then, all it’s done is grow.

“We just kind of found each other,” she said. “Now, we have a few thousand members. Membership is having lost someone to overdose.”

The group advocates for harm reduction, along with science-backed, evidence-based efforts for the overdose crisis.

The five-plus years of experience gave Agioritis a look into government, along with government policy. She explains her thoughts on Saskatoon’s Prairie Harm Reduction, and why she believes it went unfunded for the second-straight budget cycle.

“I was deeply disappointed, but I can’t say I was shocked. We’ve got a very conservative government. I think that what we have to understand, is there’s policy in government … and there’s political fear. They play to the general thoughts of the voting public but at the same time it’s negligent,” she said, before explaining that the prevention for greater medical issues at safe consumption sites.

She added that the sites reduce crime, give access to stabilization within the local community, and lowers costs to other agencies like police, fire and EMS.

“The proof is out there. The data is out there. The expertise is out there. But year after year, after year, there is no effort to actually play on that expertise and use that as an opportunity to change up the way we’re doing things,” she said.

“If the deaths aren’t motivating, then we have to look at it another way.”

When Agioritis speaks of the deaths, they continue to grow.

The Saskatchewan Coroners Service has recorded 103 in 2021 so far after a record-setting 2020.

How does she feel, seeing those deaths grow each and every month?

“It’s frustrating. It’s deflating. It makes you angry. It’s sad. It’s tragic. There’s a whole bunch of different ways (to describe it) because it’s unnecessary. And it’s not as though the thoughts, the ideas, the conversations have really changed considerably. The only thing that’s really has changed is the amount of people dying. The efforts are still drawn from a playbook that’s 30 years old,” she said.

“It’s just so obvious that it’s about political will and an understanding that’s simply not there in the community because politically, there’s no desire to change that opinion.

“People are still not going to believe it’s going to happen to them until it does … Nobody still believes that their kids going to do drugs — even though lots of them are.”

When looking to the future, Agioritis said she foresees a “generational shift.” She believes that those 25 to 35 are looking at the crisis holistically and are understanding it. With the craving for information the age range possesses, she had a prediction.

“I say we’re about eight years out from seeing some real political change,” she said.

Last week, a rally was held for Prairie Harm Reduction in Saskatoon. Agioritis said she thinks we may see more of this type of pushback through the summer, and for good reason.

“I think that even if we go out there and people are saying, ‘Ah, whatever,’ it still generates conversation. So the more we can talk about it and the more it increases awareness and an understanding,” she said.

“If this were any other accidental death that we were seeing that had preventable opportunities, we would be changing it up and our government would be educating. This is about an ugly subject that is just not politically pretty.”