An advocate for drug policy change in Kamloops says she is tired of politicians who aren’t acting quick enough to stop the overdose crisis.

There were over 2,200 overdose deaths in B.C. last year, and Sandra Tully with Moms Stop the Harm tells NL News she is concerned to see the situation worsen over the last two years.

“We just want to make a public cry to everyone in politics to make some changes,” she said. “I’m really tired of politicians saying they’re actually doing something and you know it is all just a game of moving one piece from here to there sort of thing.”

“I wish they would stop talking in circles and actually do something other than just moving beds and people around. They want to appear they are doing something but they are not really. If they were doing something these numbers wouldn’t be increasing.”

Tully says she is tired of provincial and federal politicians merely promising change but then not doing much about it afterwards.

“It is completely political. I think stigma plays a part in it,” she said. “Everybody wants to be re-elected and if I sign up for supporting you know X,Y, and Z, maybe I won’t get elected. We are talking about lives here. We are talking about actual people dying. That should be in the forefront versus keeping your party in power.”

“When Sheila Malcolmson gets on and she says, ‘oh you know, we’ve increased recovery beds.’ ‘Well no, not really. You just closed down Burnaby and opened Red Fish. So no, you didn’t really increase them. You just moved them around.’ It is a little bit annoying for them to think that we are all that stupid.”

Tully is hoping to see three changes made. That includes a safe supply of drugs, the decriminalization of small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use, as well as more treatment options locally.

Speaking at a rally held outside MLA Todd Stone’s office this morning, Tully is hoping to see the two Kamloops MLAs put pressure on the government to act quickly.

“I think [Peter] Milobar and [Todd] Stone recognize that we have an issue here in Kamloops… not just Kamloops, its just I happen to live in Kamloops… but all over the province and I hope that they do bring it up again and put some pressure on making some decisions that will save lives

She spent 77 seconds on the ground with four other people to remember the 77 people who died of an overdose in Kamloops last year.

“Events like this during the week, mid-day, they’re really really hard to get people out to. I never know when we do an event what the turnout is going to be,” she said. “I’m hopeful that someone will turnout and it will be an important enough cause to them.”

“You know whether I get one person or I get a 100 people, I’m quite happy with the turnout.”

More to come