Advocates descended on the British Columbia legislature on Monday to cap a weekend of demonstrations on Vancouver Island marking International Overdose Awareness Day .

Demonstrators laid down a long line of photos memorializing some of the thousands of British Columbians whose lives have been lost to drugs.

Among the faces on the legislature steps was Moms Stop the Harm organizer Jan Mahoney’s son Michael, who died in 2018.

“We’re worse in a lot of ways because the toxicity of the drugs has gotten worse, so I don’t really see a lot improvement,” Mahoney said.

“There’s been a few minor things that have helped, but we have a long, long way to go yet and it’s hard not to feel a little bit depressed.”

Since 2016 — the year B.C. declared a public health emergency amid surging overdose

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