Addictions stories told in opioid book
NO TWO TALES ARE ALIKE
woke up for work the next day about 6 a.m. I grabbed that pill and broke it in half, mixed it with acetaminophen with codeine, next thing I stop breathing. I could see everything around me turning black.”
This is an excerpt from the from the true story “I Am Scared Straight” reproduced from the collection called “I am the Opioid Crisis. Tales from Southern Alberta.” The narrator of this tale was one of the lucky ones, having survived his overdose experience and eventually entered treatment, but other stories in the book do not have such hopeful endings.
Amber Jensen, founder of the Sweetgrass Youth Alliance Team, which compiled the stories for the collection, said there are many powerful stories of opioid addiction out there in southern Alberta, but no two are really alike.
“Initially people choose to use drugs for reasons,” she says. “It’s not just one day you go one day I am going to grow up and be a person who’s addicted to drugs. Some of our stories end with hope, and some of them are told by people who are still struggling. We just want to increase awareness, and hopefully people can see the human side of the process.”
“I became an addict over the course of a year,” says the narrator of another story entitled “I Am Insanity Into Normality.” “We went six months between the first time we tried and the second, but we still got hooked. Somehow it was all normal— the paranoia and the sketchy behaviour. I remember watching a friend look for meth on the ground in the alley with binoculars. I remember them listening outside of each others’ windows. It was insane, and I knew it.”
Jensen commends the bravery of everyone involved in sharing their stories for “I am the Opioid Crisis,” and she hopes the book furthers attention to the victims at the heart of the crisis, many of whom are vulnerable youth between the ages of 13-30.
“They are one of the hardest hit groups that are dying,” explains Jensen. “There were 12 local children in care of Youth and Children’s Services (according to the Office of the Child and Youth Advocate), or have been in care within the last two years, that have died. My foster son was one of the stories. And there is another one I can’t get out of my head. There were two brothers, 16 and 17, who died, and I can’t imagine what those parents are going through. We are hoping to have more attention paid to youth when people are talking about next steps and moving forward.”
And when she says vulnerable youth, Jensen does not just mean street people in downtown Lethbridge or those only from a certain walk in life. This is powerfully illustrated in the story “I Am Moses Lake” included in the collection. A young couple with two children became addicted to fentanyl together in the small town.
“They had a normal day where they would send their kids to school, make lunch and then do their drugs,” the narrator “J” explains. “Their children got off the bus to notice their house was taped off with police tape. Their children saw them being taken away in body bags due to careless drug dealers who don’t care about their clientele or themselves.”
Jensen hopes “I am the Opioid Crisis” can stand as a testament for the victims, and help reach those still struggling with addictions.
“I do this because I am following my heart,” she says of her reasons for wanting to publish the book. “I feel this is what I need to do to help, but its always great to see others agree with me and I am not out in left field.”
For more information on the book “I am the Opioid Crisis. Tales from Southern Alberta” visit the Sweetgrass Youth Alliance Team website at
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