Tara McGuire - OUR OVERDOSE CRISIS

Tara McGuire is a mother, a steep advocate for change in the fight against overdoses, a former broadcaster, and a powerfully potent writer. Her book “Holden After and Before," gives us an honest insight into her grief, carried from the loss of her son, Holden to the opioid crisis, which Tara points out is better viewed as what it truly is: an overdose crisis.

"He died because he made a mistake that day,” she says with heavy compassion for her own loss, and her son's loss, too, "He wasn't trying to die."

Holden's overdose at 21 is not an isolated event. 

Over 35,000 families know their version of her pain from the last five years alone. That's 21 deaths a day. And while the "cause of death," might be marked on paper with the same words, the Cause of Life and the person behind it only exists once.

We’re all one of one. That's the love part of the loss. That’s the crisis of One in many.

Tara has turned that love for her son into proactive activism. She is now invited to speak to judges with power to change the course of treatment made available to people struggling.

In this episode, we talk about the solutions—the life-saving solutions our youth deserve. 

And Tara drops bars in one of the most special elements of this episode. Through her prose and poetics Tara's gives voice to hope. At the top of Segment 2, we hear her read an excerpt and go into her world as she breathes in the life of her son . 

All of this takes us to the key emotion driving impactful change: compassion.

"We need to find out why people are numbing themselves with these substances at all. Who we’re losing through this overdoes crisis are our most sensitive people." Tara says, "We need to be in the prevention business... we need to provide care instead of punishment."

That part.

WORKS:
- Author of "Holden After and Before: Love Letter for a Son Lost to Overdose"
- Notably recognized essay: “I Can Feel Him Breathing”
- Tara's poems and essays have been recognized by Room Magazine, the Writer’s Union of Canada, the TNQ Edna Staebler personal essay contest, as well as broadcast on The Sunday Edition and The Vinyl Cafe on CBC Radio

 

TOOLS:
- Wisdom that guides us to our calling
- How to speak to your children about drug use with compassion 
- Language to help us demystify the stigma of substance abuse
- Permission to take your time with grief and guidance for how to express grief 
- How to transfer energy when someone we love dies 
- Reminders that bad advice exists everywhere and to feel your feelings
- The importance of ritual 
- Pharmaceutical information that helps us question why our doctors are prescribing these highly addictive meds to begin with when there are alternatives 

MEMORIAL FUND
After his passing, the Holden Courage Memorial Fund for Artists was created to support street artists. Link to donate here

Addictions Treatment Helplines in Canada

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (U.S.)

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

BETTER is recorded on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
 

BETTER with Mark Brand is produced by Pamela Rothenberg of