Daphne Bramham: Despair, not drugs, the deeper factor in youth overdoses

Stemming a rising tide of overdose deaths and substance-related critical injuries among children and youth isn’t as simple as providing a supervised injection site, clean needles, teaching kids about safer drug use or even early interventions and better access to treatment and recovery services.
Among the kids using drugs, a small but significant number are self-medicating for trauma they’ve suffered when adults haven’t done enough to keep them safe.
In 2017, there were 24 chil