Three overdoses on Calgary Transit in one day: CBC reporter Lucie Edwardson reported her day on CTrain on Monday to launch our community-driven traffic safety project.
The advice came quickly and with excitement.
There were many comments like Laura Martin’s: “I used to take my kids on the train often to visit downtown parks / spend a day at the zoo, where parking is inconvenient or expensive. Now I wouldn’t dream of taking my kids. children, a bus or train in Calgary “.
One of the last times he took a train with his seven-year-old son, a man pulled out a glass pipe a few feet from where they were sitting and smoked it “as casually as if he were looking at his phone.”
They got out and took a taxi home.
We’ve had hundreds of people write: stories about vomiting, bumps, or pushing, seeing drug use, experiencing fear, and finding a new determination to stay as far away from the train as possible.
Many say they use the bus when they can because there is a driver.
Carver Philips said drugs and harassment made him switch to the bus, but doubled his travel time.
“The whole trip lasted more than two hours; it was four hours of my day every day. I gave up and drove again every day. It takes 30 minutes in each direction, and my safety in front of someone with drugs or Alcohol is no longer a problem.
A pair of security guards give a life-saving dose of Narcan to a man who has an overdose at a bus stop outside Marlborough LRT station on June 8. CBC News decided to publish this photo to illustrate what is happening, but without identifying a person in crisis. . (CBC)
We are still reading and replying to hundreds of messages, but it is clear that this is a widespread problem that is preventing many people from returning to Calgary Transit. Drug use and crime are jeopardizing a multimillion-dollar infrastructure for all calgars.
The complexity of drugs in transit
But here’s another story. One that makes possible solutions more complex.
Those three men who overdosed on Edwardson that day all three lived. Two of them were rescued for traffic safety.
If the public reaction to drug use only leads to repression, does that simply force drugs, homelessness, and despair into dark corners where no one sees it? Out-of-sight drug use can be a death sentence.
This is another topic we’ve heard about, especially from a group of Twitter advocates.
If people want to stop “seeing” this happens. Maybe invest in a secure supply, supervised consumption sites, and certainly invest in housing
Thoughtshttps://t.co/Qyq4uiXqHF
– @HappinessTrying
Several advocates for harm reduction and journalists criticized CBC for being surprised and for not causing the journalist to wear Narcan, a nasal spray version of the opioid antidote naloxone, saying he should expect to see an overdose during the traffic and be prepared to reverse it herself.
Many people who joined our text messaging group first talked about how insecure they felt. Then they got into the complexity of homelessness and drug use when they talked about solutions. They are afraid but they are also worried about drug users.
A “pandemic of a different kind”
Elizabeth-Anne Johnson wrote: “I think the things that make people uncomfortable using public transportation (homeless, drug use, etc.) are caused by the lack of social support that “No one wants to smoke crack on a train, station or sleeping in a bus shelter, but we as a society have failed these people.”
And Debbie Sellers said the problem can be seen far beyond traffic. He said he lives in Forest Lawn, in an apartment next to 17th Avenue SE, where this year his parking lot is being occupied by drug users.
She wrote: “No one can park their cars under the car park anymore, the police seem to be limited in what they can do? … It has been surreal and we are facing another pandemic of another kind.
“They will also come in groups to protect themselves because some of them don’t feel safe, so they start going into the backyard to sleep where they feel safer. I guess even those who don’t have a home and use drugs “I feel insecure. Also. I talked to another guy who seemed very nice, and he said he was hit and jumped by a bunch of other guys.”
Passengers board the CTrain at Calgary Zoo Station. (Lucie Edwardson / CBC)
Notes sent to our text messaging application are confidential. The people we named here gave their permission to share comments publicly.
What is community-driven journalism
Detailed comments on which stations have certain problems, how the emergency text line helps or not, how the problems are changing the behavior of drivers and what solutions they would like to see explored, all this helps to shape our questions. municipal, traffic and provincial authorities, and to shape the stories we tell below.
This is our next job: to create a list of questions and stories for this project. Because that’s what community-driven journalism is. Start by listening; that listening and reporting go hand in hand. Editing is done in stages; we keep learning and we can keep listening.
This search for understanding is a task we face together.
We will talk to experts and advocates. This is important. And we need to focus on listening to the community. Because the experience of the people who are living it is important. This includes people who are in traffic, or who have been kicked out of traffic, who do not want their children to be in traffic … and includes people caught in a horrible cycle of addiction.
This article was just a beginning. If you want to follow it, join our text messaging community.
And if you’re curious about community-driven journalism, check out our previous projects.