'The situation is only getting worse': Advocates renew calls for addictions support on International Overdose Awareness Day
The lawn of Saskatchewan’s Legislative Building was covered in 1,681 wooden crosses on Tuesday to represent all the lives lost from overdose in the province since 2010.
The display, commemorating International Overdose Awareness Day, was organized by Prairie Harm Reduction, Moms Stop the Harm and Regina Harm Reduction Coalition to bring the public a visual of how many lives have been impacted by overdoses.
“A lot of times people forgot or don’t realize the impact that this has on the community,” Jason Mercredi, the executive director of Prairie Harm Reduction, said. “For every cross that represents an individual, friends and family are impacted with each death and the situation is only getting worse.”
From January to August 3 of this year, the Saskatchewan Coroners Service reported 87 confirmed drug toxicity deaths and 134 suspected deaths, equaling 221 deaths so far.
Throughout 2020 there were a combined 337 overdose deaths.
PROVINCIAL SUPPORT
Prairie Harm Reduction and similar organizations receive some funding from the provincial government for programming, but not for the operation of its site, which provides a monitored place for drug consumption.
“[The province] recently started giving us drug checking equipment, that’s awesome. So you’re giving us the equipment to check the drugs, but you’re not giving us the staffing dollars so that we can operate the equipment or stay open with our consumption site?” Mercredi said. “I think they need to start taking this seriously and start funding the safe consumption site.”
He said the funding is needed in Regina as well, where overdose numbers are significantly higher.
On Tuesday, the provincial government announced a new overdose awareness campaign that will be rolling out primarily on social media platforms.
“We [are trying] to encourage more folks to talk about what it is that is happening in Saskatchewan,” Everett Hindley, the minister of mental health and addiction, told CTV News. “Any time there is a death of an overdose or a suspected overdose, it’s a tragedy, and it’s important to know that these are people we all know in our communities.”
Hindley said the province is consistently looking at how to spend its limited dollars to help programs, including Prairie Harm Reduction, in an effective way.
“[Prairie Harm Reduction] has requested broader funding from the Government of Saskatchewan, and I would say any proposal or request for additional funding is always considered as part of the annual budgeting process,” Hindley said.
Mercredi said Prairie Harm Reduction members continue to ask for more help.
“They know what we’re asking,” he said. “Their own internal documents show that they’d save the money and we’d save lives.”
The Saskatchewan NDP is also calling on more assistance from the province.
“We have never seen the situation so dire in Saskatchewan,” Meara Conway, the official critic for community based organizations, said. “We are calling on the Sask Party government to fund the initiatives that we know to work. We have internal government documents indicating the community-based safe consumption will save money and save lives.”
ENDING THE STIGMA
At the Mamaweyatitan Centre on Tuesday, community leaders and people with lived experience related to overdose gathered to share their stories.
One speaker was 40-year-old Tammie Huber, who has dealt with drug use for the majority of her life.
“I was first introduced [to drugs] when I was five years old by my father to cocaine,” Huber said. “I did drugs on my own, like marijuana was I was nine years old. By 16, I was doing pretty much any drug out there.”
She was able to get back on track. She became a home care aid and had two children.
“Then I fell off my path,” she said. “I’d been using crystal meth for over 18 years and fentanyl, heroine, crack cocaine and lots of other numerous amounts of drugs throughout my life.”
She said she was sent to prison after attempting suicide, and that’s when she turned her life around for good.
Huber said she believes if more programs, including safe consumption sites, had been around during her journey, it would have helped.
“There’s a lot of other things. We need people with harm reduction backpacks to go in the community, to hand out harm reduction without any bias or judgment,” she said.
Huber said she wanted to share her journey on Tuesday to end the stigma around drug use.
“I just want more people to understand without judgment,” she explained. “With COVID-19 and all our restrictions being put out, a lot of addicts have been falling off and our overdose numbers have been rising. I just wanted to share my story to give hope to people that if I can change, anybody can.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Bodies found by U.S. authorities searching for missing B.C. kayakers
United States authorities who have been searching for a pair of missing kayakers from British Columbia since the weekend have recovered two bodies in the nearby San Juan Islands of Washington state.
'It's discriminatory': Individuals refused entry to Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
Individuals being barred from entering Ontario’s legislature while wearing a keffiyeh say the garment is part of their cultural identity— and the only ones making it political are the politicians banning it.
Tom Mulcair: Park littered with trash after 'pilot project' is perfect symbol of Trudeau governance
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
Saskatchewan households will continue to receive carbon tax rebate: Trudeau
Households in Saskatchewan will continue to receive Canada Carbon Rebate payments, despite the province refusing to remit natural gas levies to the federal government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
'It's just so hard to let it go': Umar Zameer still haunted by death of Toronto police officer
'We hoped for this day, but we were scared that it would not never ever come because it took so long.' That’s what Umar Zameer, the man recently acquitted in the death of a Toronto police officer, told CTV News Toronto in a sit-down interview on Tuesday.
Senate expenses climbed to $7.2 million in 2023, up nearly 30%
Senators in Canada claimed $7.2 million in expenses in 2023, a nearly 30 per cent increase over the previous year.
Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko won't play in Game 2
The Vancouver Canucks will be without all-star goalie Thatcher Demko when they face the Nashville Predators in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
Pedestrian, baby injured after stroller struck and dragged by vehicle in Squamish, B.C.
Police say a baby and a pedestrian suffered non-life-threatening injuries after a vehicle struck a baby stroller and dragged it for two blocks before stopping in Squamish, B.C.
North Bay doctor accused of assaulting patient, threatening another
A North Bay doctor is facing charges after allegedly assaulting a patient with a weapon and threatening another person at the hospital, police say.