Derrick Zabotel estimates he’s lost more than 80 family members and friends due to the opioid crisis.
“I have a stack of obituaries this big,” he gestures with his hands. "Grief is one of the hardest things to deal with in life…because you just get over the passing away of a relative or a friend…then you don't even have the time to grieve for that person and there's already another one who's passing away. So it's affected me deeply."
Originally of the Bonaparte First Nation in Cache Creek, Derrick’s Secwépemc name, Snéwt n péllêllkwé7, means Wind over Water. He’s a member of Interior Health’s Peer Advisory and works with ASK Wellness in Kamloops. He hopes to become an Indigenous Peer Navigator to be able to support programs that connect spiritually and culturally with Indigenous People.
In the following video, he shares his story of addiction and grief, and the impact the toxic drug crisis has had on him these past nine years since the declaration of the toxic drug crisis public health emergency in B.C.
