Global Courant
Krista Thomas stands at the intersection of Main and Cordova streets in Vancouver, where her late partner, Jerry Martin, once set up a mobile store selling tested heroin, cocaine, and other illegal drugs.
Martin, 51, died Friday after a suspected fentanyl overdose, according to Thomas, who is still in shock.
“Right now, it’s still pretty surreal,” Thomas told CBC News on Monday. “I haven’t had time to process what really happened.”
Martin made national and international headlines in May this year after he was arrested for opening his drugstore. He wanted to give people a safer supply of drugs as the toxic drug crisis killed hundreds of people every month in BC.
Thomas said she received a call from police last Tuesday that Martin had become unresponsive in a vehicle and was being taken to hospital. Police called back about 10 minutes later to say Martin was stable and had a heartbeat.
Krista Thomas, partner of the late Jerry Martin, says she has not yet come to terms with his death. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
But Martin’s condition worsened, Thomas said, and he was put into an induced coma. CT scans showed he had significant brain damage, believed to be caused by a drug overdose, Thomas said.
“He actually would have had very primitive functions, maybe swallowing, breathing, coughing. It became very clear that the quality of life Jerry would have wanted was no longer there,” said Thomas.
She and Martin’s mother decided to end his suffering and take him off a ventilator.
LOOK | Krista Thomas discusses Jerry Martin’s final days:
Jerry Martin’s partner recounts the days leading up to his death
Krista Thomas, the partner of the late Jerry Martin, an activist who briefly opened a mobile shop selling illegal drugs, tells the CBC’s Yasmine Ghania that Martin struggled with mental health issues before he died.
‘great tragedy’
Jennifer Whiteside, BC’s Secretary of Mental Health and Addictions, expressed her condolences to Martin’s family in a statement to CBC on Monday.
“Every life lost due to the supply of toxic drugs is a huge tragedy – with consequences for family, friends and the community,” the statement said, adding “this unrelenting toxic drug crisis requires that we use all the resources in our using our toolbox to save lives and give people a chance to access the care they need.”
Martin’s loved ones and drug activists point to the tragic irony of Martin’s death from an overdose, as he wanted to prevent deaths by providing a safer drug supply.
The Drug User Liberation Front (DULF), a Vancouver-based organization, has also been trying to get people tested illegal drugs. Over the past nine months, the organization has illegally sold cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine to 50 people who are at high risk of overdose.
“It’s heartbreaking and it changes you and it radicalizes you to repeatedly go to your friend’s funerals and witness the horror beyond human comprehension,” says camouflage-wearing DULF co-founder Eris Nyx. as they fight the drug crisis on the Downtown Eastside is a war.
Eris Nyx is a co-founder of the Drug User Liberation Front, which sells hard drugs to people at high risk of overdose. (Yasmine Ghana/CBC)
DULF is investigating the effectiveness of its program and is seeking exemption from the federal Drugs and Substances Act. According to Nyx, no one has died from the DULF drug program.
“Our goal is not to make a profit selling drugs. It’s to keep people who use drugs safe so they can live healthy and productive lives,” Nyx said.
Mental health problems
Martin was arrested less than a day after opening his pharmacy. But he was willing to be arrested for taking on a constitutional challenge to advocate for the legal safe supply of drugs.
According to Thomas, he was arrested again in early June for driving without insurance. Police seized his car and drugs, she said. Things snowballed from there.
“I felt like he slipped,” Thomas said. “He admittedly said he was having a hard time.”
Jerry Martin’s mobile drugstore opened May 3 in the Downtown Eastside, selling small amounts of illegal drugs such as cocaine, crack, methamphetamine and heroin. The store was closed the next day. (CBC News)
Thomas said he was meticulous about testing his drugs. She wonders if Martin made an impulsive decision to use drugs that went untested the day he overdosed, and is haunted by the fact that she will never definitively know what happened.
“We’ll never know if it was self-medication and if it went too far,” Thomas said.
BC’s Coroners Service has confirmed it is investigating Martin’s death.
Thomas is left with unanswered questions, and Martin’s two pit bull puppies – Paris and Prada. She says she will now lead the constitutional challenge that Martin worked on with a lawyer.
“He touched so many lives and he raised you along the way,” said Thomas. “He would absolutely want his story to continue to be told.”
