Medical students join opposition at Sask. Legislature to call for harm reduction initiatives

Several medical students were at the Saskatchewan Legislature on Monday, calling for harm reduction initiatives to be put into place.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Ryan Krochak, Regina president for Students of Harm Reduction, said his group has a meeting with Everett Hindley, minister of mental health and addictions, on April 4.

“In this meeting, we are advocating for publicly funded intranasal naloxone in Saskatchewan,” he said.

Krochak, a second year medical student at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine, said his group was formed in response to record drug toxicity deaths in Saskatchewan. Last year, 421 Saskatchewan residents died of drug toxicity.

“As medical students, we kind of see how substance use disorders affect every single area of medicine,” he said.

“Right now, we need upstream investments to be preventing overdoses in our province.”

Krochak said the government needs to transition from a reactive measure to a proactive measure.

“We work a lot with community based organizations who are on the front lines of these issues,” he said.

When asked what he was looking for in the budget, Krochuk said he would have liked to see publicly funded consumption sites in Saskatchewan.

“We need to be preventing overdoses,” he said. “Really, to holistically deal with some of these issues, we need to be looking at safe consumption sites, safe supply, drug decriminalization,” he said.

He said these measures were identified in the Saskatchewan Drug Task Force Report that came out last year.

“It was a big project, there was lots of consultations, we just need to follow through with some of the consultations that the government is carrying out,” he said.

During question period on Monday, NDP MLA Vicki Mowat asked Hindley why funding for safe consumption sites was not in the provincial budget.

“They’re not listening to the evidence when it comes to harm reduction and safe consumption sites. Safe consumption sites save lives,” she said.

Hindley said the budget included record funding for the area of mental health and addictions with a specific increase in new funding for several initiatives.

“This government is focused on treatment and prevention, as well as long term recovery for those who are struggling with addictions,” he said.

Mowat said the medical students that joined them in the Legislature know the evidence, and are calling on the government to listen to the evidence.

“They’re here specifically to call on the minister to fund intranasal naloxone and to make it available throughout the community,” she said. “It delivers more naloxone, it lasts longer, and it’s easier to administer. It would be a major step forward in reducing overdoses in our province.”

Hindley said the government is currently embarking on a pilot project with intranasal naloxone. He said they are monitoring it for its efficacy, and will expand on it.

“I’ve had the opportunity to meet with a number of organizations on this very issue,” he said.

“The status quo isn’t working,” Mowat said. “Although there is no one size solution for this problem, the people of Saskatchewan need a government who can provide the evidence based services that people need to survive. We need to keep people alive long enough to get treatment.”

Hindley said there would be more funding provided to the Saskatchewan drug task force to address the issue.

“It’s one of the areas where we have funded and are starting to fund through a pilot base this year, overdose outreach teams to try to reach people where they’re at in their communities, meeting them where they need those supports.”

Hindley went on to explain that the government is halfway through the pilot project in both Regina and Saskatoon.

According to a statement from the ministry of health, there is currenly a pilot project underway that has stationed nasal naloxone kits alongsite 18 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) so far.

- With files from CTV News Regina's Wayne Mantyka