Silent emergency: How the opioid crisis is reshaping the Peace region

The opioid crisis is often framed as an urban problem, but the Peace Region is facing its own hidden emergency.

Rising overdose deaths, emergency room pressures, and the ripple effects on families and local services are reshaping our small communities in the north and without a solid plan in place, the problem continues to grow.

“The community has to be accepting of it and not be judgmental while getting rid of the stigma, people will come forward and they will seek help,” said Heather McGladdery Boswell, an organizer for international Overdose Awareness Day in Fort St. John and community activist.

“People do drugs, whether it be prescription drugs or consuming alcohol. Going to a bar is like going to a safe consumption site for alcoholics and I think people misunderstand what’s going on, we’re very quick to judge. I think the biggest thing is we have to stop judging people and understand they’re all humans, they’re somebody’s sons, daughters and loved ones.

Boswell’s son passed away in 2018 from an overdose, and she has worked tirelessly since then to advocate for overdose awareness in our community while changing the stigma.

“The town needs something and somebody needs to stand up for all the people dying, so I decided to pick up the mantle and run with it.”

The City of Fort St. John signed a document on August 11, proclaiming August 31 International Overdose Awareness Day in the North Peace.

Fort St. John is one of thirty-five high priority BC communities where the drug toxicity overdose crisis is more common and where a community led Community Action Team has been organized according to the document.

The unregulated drug deaths data for 2025 from the BC Coroners Service was last updated on July 31, stating nearly seven out of ten drug-related deaths in the province have been people aged 30 to 59, with almost four out of five of those losses being male.

Toxicology reports from 2025 show fentanyl and its analogues remain the leading substances found in overdose deaths, appearing in about 70% of cases tested according to the BC Coroners Service.

Methamphetamine and cocaine were also common, detected in just over half of the expedited results and health officials note that carfentanil has been showing up more often in recent months.

There’s a name, a family, and an unfinished story behind every one of those numbers.

“I’ve lost my mom, two aunts, my uncle, and many cousins and friends,” says Aidan Potskin, a Prince George resident who works for much of the year in Fort St. John. “Every side of the Peace I’m on, it’s the same thing. It seems like every month you find out about another death and it’s somebody you love or somebody you grew up with. It’s all over the place, and it’s tearing holes through our families and communities.”

Aidan’s brother, Zachary Potskin, now working in Winnipeg as an anti-stigma and harm reduction worker, says the answer starts with empathy.

In his work, Zachary has come to see stigma as one of the biggest obstacles in northern communities. “Stigma is itself a form of violence,” he says. “It isolates people. It makes them think they’re unworthy of help or compassion. But when we respond with empathy instead of judgment, something powerful happens: people show up. People connect. People begin to heal and that healing spreads through families, communities, and society as a whole.”