Advocates call for better access to harm reduction in Alberta to help 'keep people alive'
Advocates held rallies across Alberta on Wednesday to raise awareness about the drug poisoning crisis plaguing the province.
“This is an all-hands-on-deck situation. There just simply aren’t enough of us,” said Alyssa Miller, co-founder of Boots on Ground, a street outreach and harm-reduction society.
“There really isn’t any relief in sight,” Josh Fanaeian, an emergency physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, added.
Edmonton’s overdose rates have gone up disproportionately in comparison to other cities, Petra Schulz, the co-founder of Moms Stop the Harm, said during the rally at the Alberta legislature.
“Harm reduction keeps people alive. To address the toxic drug supply, we need a safe supply,” she said.
Fanaeian told CTV News Edmonton hospital staff are seeing a spike in patients requiring hospital beds and long-term care after an overdose, something that’s becoming a “huge burden on the system.”
“They need help and end up being in the hospital beds for a long time.”
According to Fanaeian, because the drug supply is having a “large fluctuation,” it’s contributing to the increase in drug poisonings.
“People really have no idea what they're getting into,” he said.
“If you’re opioid naïve, never having used opiates before, you’re at much higher risk of dying because of that.”
Miller said she would like to see the government grant easier access to harm-reduction resources and reduce barriers “instead of putting up more for people who use drugs.”
“It’s traumatic for people that are experiencing the poisoning. It’s traumatic for people who are responding to drug poisonings hoping that we can keep people alive.”
Without proper drug-checking services, Miller said they can only “guess” what someone has been poisoned with when attending a callout.
“It’s absolutely preventable,” she said. “That’s the heaviest part of it for us.”
“Toxic street supply doesn’t discriminate. And it’s really important how profoundly negative this is for our city.”
More information on the work that’s being done by advocates can be found here.
With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jessica Robb
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus survives vote calling for his ouster
Greg Fergus survived a vote to oust him as House of Commons Speaker on Tuesday, but with close to half of MPs expressing a loss of confidence in him, he faces a precarious path forward in maintaining order in Parliament.
'It was hell': Israeli mother held hostage with her children describes 51 days in captivity
Hagar Brodutch, her three children and four-year-old neighbour were kidnapped by Hamas-led militants from their home in Kfar Aza, Israel on Oct. 7 and held for 51 days. They were released in November, but Brodutch says her thoughts are never far from those still being held in Gaza.
'Unruly passenger' forces WestJet flight to make emergency landing in B.C.
A WestJet flight heading to Calgary had to make an emergency landing in northern B.C. Monday due to an incident involving an 'unruly passenger,' Mounties say.
P.E.I. kiteboarder 'lucky to be alive' after shark attack in Turks and Caicos
A professional kiteboarder from P.E.I. says he has been seriously injured in a shark attack that occurred while he was snorkelling in the Turks and Caicos Islands last week.
Teen dies after being hit by train in N.W. Calgary
A teenager has died after being hit by a train in northwest Calgary on Tuesday afternoon.
Black bear kebabs make family sick with parasitic worms
It was supposed to be a celebration, but one family’s unique meal of black bear meat sent several members to the hospital instead.
'It's his vacation too': Jimmy the baby goat joins 2-week road trip across Canada
After Jimmy the baby goat was shunned by his mother, a New Brunswick man took the kid on a two-week road trip across Canada.
The double-level airplane seat is back. This time, there’s a first-class version
It’s the airplane seat design that launched a thousand memes and kickstarted a media storm. And now the double-level seat is back – only this time, with a twist.
New COVID-19 subvariants become the dominant strains in Canada
More than four years after COVID-19 effectively shut down the world, two new variants of COVID-19 have become the dominant strains of the novel coronavirus in Canada.