People First Radio – September 04, 2025

People First Radio – September 04, 2025

How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This episode of People First Radio centres on that question, using raw stories from the toxic drug poisoning crisis to make the statistics painfully real. Host Joe Pugh introduces the context: more than 50,000 deaths in Canada since 2016 and International Overdose Awareness Day as a time to remember, grieve, and push for change. From there, the focus shifts to people on the front lines of harm reduction.

First up is Greg Heminger, programme coordinator with the Tailgate Toolkit, who shares his history with prescription opioids, heroin, and fentanyl. He talks about how stigma and pride stopped him from asking for help when he first learned his prescribed OxyContin was "synthetic heroin", and how that silence led to years of addiction, homelessness and multiple near-death experiences.

Greg credits harm reduction with his survival: "Harm reduction acted as not my safety net, but as my trampoline to recovery." He also speaks openly about survivor’s guilt, the death of his fiancée Shanna, and the quiet power of male peer support and community in early recovery. The episode then shifts to nurse and Harm Reduction Nurses Association president Corey Ranger, who brings hard data and policy critique.

Corey talks about working in encampments, the rise of benzodiazepines in the supply, and how this is "a drug poisoning emergency" affecting people in private homes as much as on the streets. He challenges fear-based policies and urges people to carry naloxone, question media framing, and demand evidence-based responses from politicians. If you’re curious about how real stories, harm reduction tools, and straight-talking advocacy can shape a safer future, this one might be the nudge you need today.