This is why you're seeing all those black balloons downtown

Members of Addiction and Mental Health Advocates were out placing dozens of black balloons along parts of downtown Sault Ste. Marie Saturday to remember those who have lost their lives to overdose. 

Black Balloon Day happens in communities across the United States March 6 to raise awareness of overdose deaths, and the group’s founder and chairperson, Donna DeSimon, was among those in the Sault who wanted to show solidarity with their neighbours on the other side of the border. 

“It’s not hard to do, they’re visible and we think it’s a good way to memorialize people that we’ve lost,” she said.  

Debbie MacDonald says one of her sons is currently on suboxone as part of an outpatient program. She suspects he’s lived with addictions issues between three and four years.

She tells SooToday that he’s been clean for two months now.   

“It’s a slow process. He was very quiet, wasn’t talking much. But now he laughs when he’s watching TV. He’s starting to come back to himself,” said MacDonald. “It’s good. It’s hard on me because I’ve been paying for his suboxone, and it’s $10 a day.”

“We’re remembering those that we’ve lost, and those that we’re going to save,” DeSimon added. 

Another group member hopes to spark conversations around addiction and mental health with events like Black Balloon Day. 

“It’s real. It’s here, it’s happening and it needs the attention - more than just idle chi-chat,” said Lebertine Wilson. “We’re hoping to spark a conversation about it. The stigma needs to end.”

“It’s its own crisis, on top of the pandemic. There’s a huge crisis with drugs, overdose, homelessness, mental health,” added group member Cheri Judd. 

DeSimon says the pandemic has resulted in more and more people being lost to overdose and suicide locally.  

“This is what’s going on in your city, and let’s remember them because we’ve lost so many young, young people, and then you have the ones that are substance abusers committing suicide. It’s a double-edged sword,” she said. “This is to remember them.”

According to the most recent data from Public Health Ontario, there were 28 opioid-related deaths in the Algoma Public Health region in the first six months of 2020.