As element of a particular series, World Information is exploring the struggles of people residing on the Downtown Eastside. In component one, a Vancouver man’s journey from Hollywood to Hastings reveals how hard it is to get out of a cycle of habit.
Bernie Coulson has been called a genius.
The Vancouver-born actor and producer was a key character in the 1988 Hollywood blockbuster The Accused opposite Oscar winner Jodie Foster and appeared in shows from The X-Information to Intelligence.
But the guy who after shared an apartment with Brad Pitt in Los Angeles now lives in the V6A, one of the poorest postal codes in Canada.
The after soaring star, now in his late 50s, has a new part: striving to continue to be alive on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
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In a possibility meeting with International News near Principal and Hastings in Oct, Coulson points out how he’s snorting govt-issued medicine through a straw as he waits to get into treatment.
“I’m so lucky this past time. 6 months back when I overdosed, that was it. It was ultimate and it worried the dwelling crap out of me and I really don’t want to go back there,” he said.
“I truly don’t want that any longer. I just want to be me, which was crack a couple cold kinds soon after do the job.”
Bernie Coulson.
World wide Information
When requested irrespective of whether he wishes to continue to be on safe provide, he claims no and that it is “not so safe and sound.”
Coulson is determined not to develop into one more coroner statistic disclosed in a month to month press launch. A lot more than 10,000 persons have died in B.C. from a poisonous drug source since a general public well being emergency was declared in 2016.
Giuseppe Ganci describes how he felt when his friend Don Presland was dying from an overdose.
“When I got to the hospital, that’s when I got mad. I received really mad,” reported Ganci, the director of community enhancement for Final Door Recovery Culture in New Westminster.
“Donnie was in this healthcare facility. He’s acquired all these nurses, (intense care unit) men and women, equipment. He’s got every thing simply because he’s dying and they were ready to pull the plug.”
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Ganci tells World-wide Information Presland didn’t have the money to shell out for non-public addiction services and a govt-funded bed with all the supports was unavailable when he essential them.
He estimated the rough charge of Presland’s hospital remain for less than a 7 days was additional than $10,000.
“The procedure is place in which when a person is overdosing and dying, it is red carpet therapy. Here’s the ambulance. Here’s the healthcare facility. Here’s the expert services,” he said.
“But the minute you get well and you occur out of your overdose and you say ‘I require assistance,’ oh nicely, get in line, go on welfare, how a lot revenue do you make? It absolutely variations.”
Again on the Downtown Eastside, Coulson receives some terrible information. A fantastic friend’s brother handed away from an overdose.
In the meantime, Coulson continues to be all set for rehab.
“This is my choice to go. I’ve been 17 situations prior to for other folks. So I want to do it this time. I have received nothing at all to disguise and I’m going to make the greatest of it.”
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