The First Nation opioid crisis In Canada
(ANNews) – In 2020, Canada’s chief medical health officer Dr. Theresa Tam released a report detailing the state of public health and the worsening opioid crisis amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report said the reason for the increase in opioid-related deaths was because of the amount of fentanyl in illegal drugs — with extreme concentrations of fentanyl being found in 14 per cent of opioid deaths.
Now a year later, the crisis has only gotten worse.
Ontario
In late November 2021, the Chiefs of Ontario, in collaboration with the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, released two reports documenting the increase in opioid-related poisonings during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the need to address the opioid-crisis in regards to First Nations communities.
The amount of opioid-related deaths in the province has more than doubled during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Chiefs of Ontario attributed the rise in opioid-related poisonings to the growing presence of fentanyl in the unregulated drug supply and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic emerged amid an opioid crisis in our communities. The findings in these reports reinforce what First Nations leadership, families and communities have been demanding for decades,” said Ontario Regional Chief Glen Hare. “More needs to be done, and we must act now.”
“First Nations have been disproportionately affected by the overdose crisis. The use of opioids and other substances continues to surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, producing conditions that further increase overdoses and deaths,” said Regional Chief Hare.
The reports note that 116 First Nations people died due to opioid poisoning between March 2020 and March 2021, compared with 50 people in the previous year.
That’s a 132 percent increase, compared to a 68 percent increase of opioid-related deaths among the rest of the population in the province.
First Nations people were identified in the report using the Indian Registry System database, which includes people who are eligible for Indian Status under the Indian Act.
Neither the Ontario Ministry of Health or Indigenous Services Canada have provided a comment.
The Rest of Canada
However, opioid usage and poisonings have been felt nationally, especially in Western Canada, with the provinces of B.C. and Alberta seeing an increase in opioid-related deaths in the recent past.
Now Saskatchewan and the Yukon have begun seeing an increase as well.
The Saskatchewan coroner’s service recently released statistics outlining opioid-related deaths in the province. So far in 2021, there have been a total of 364 suspected and confirmed drug-related deaths.
In 2020 there were 330.
As for the Yukon, the territory reported alarming opioid death statistics in September, claiming that 14 overdose deaths have occurred since Jan. 1.
Yukon’s chief coroner Heather Jones said of the 14 deaths that occurred this year, six people were First Nations.
All of the 14 deaths “involved opioids in various formats of fentanyl and in combination with other illicit drugs and/or alcohol,” the report said.
“More and more Yukon families are being left with a devastating reality found in the wake of these lost lives.
“This is a pain that is now close to so many of us.”
, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alberta Native News
Alberta government firm on recovery-oriented care as province on track for deadliest year for drug poisonings
Province announced 8,000 addiction treatment beds have
been funded annually since 2019 promise of 4,000
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Mike Ellis announced Saturday the Alberta government has doubled the number of addiction recovery beds that it promised in 2019 would be funded.
They also encouraged people to use an app, the Digital Overdose Response System, that they hope will help dispatch ambulances to people overdosing in their homes. It is already in use in Calgary, Edmonton and surrounding communities.
Alberta is on track for its deadliest year on record for fatal drug poisonings. As of August, more than 1,000 people had died from drug poisonings. Just less than 1,300 people died in 2020, which was the highest single-year total so far.
Ellis says there is no one answer to the crisis.
"We're exploring a lot of options, but right now we are completely focused on recovery," he said.
In 2019 the government announced funding for 4,000 new annual treatment spaces that those struggling with addiction can access without fees. Kenney said the government has doubled that goal, making 8,000 beds available each year instead.
He also announced Saturday an integrated software to connect different recovery facilities across the province that will be launched in 2022.
Focus remains on recovery-oriented care
Kenney said a lack of access to recovery services is "unacceptable."
"The bottom line is this: if a single-minded focus on so-called harm reduction, including so-called safe supply, really worked, then how do we explain the total disaster of the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver?"
Lori Sigurdson, NDP critic for addictions and mental health, said in a statement that though more addiction recovery beds are a good thing, there should be more emphasis put on harm reduction services, such as supervised consumption sites.
"The government's response to this crisis cannot be measured in beds opened or dollars spent, but must be measured by lives saved," said Sigurdson. "By that measure the UCP's failure is a tragic one."
She said Kenney has mischaracterized harm reduction services, stigmatizing people who need to access them.
JUNKIES ONLY HAVE THEMSELVES TO BLAME
"We don't think facilitating deadly addictions is the safe or responsible approach," said Kenney Saturday about pushes for safe supply.
Trust needed for people to use app for overdoses: health policy expert
The majority of drug users are in their own homes in the suburbs, not at safe consumption sites, Ellis said.
He and Kenney encouraged people to use the Digital Overdose Response System app, which has a timer that is set before a person uses a drug. If a person doesn't respond within a certain time after the timer goes off, an ambulance is dispatched to their home.
Concerns about privacy or police showing up might stop some people from using the app, though, said Elaine Hyshka, an assistant professor at the University of Alberta's School of Public Health.
"What we've seen in other jurisdictions that have had these apps for much longer, like British Columbia, is that they're useful for some people but they're not really widespread — there isn't widespread uptake," Hyshka said.
"It's not a bad thing to have an app. I actually think it's really important to try new things we haven't done before to get on top of the situation, but we just have to do a lot of due diligence to ensure it works well for people."
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