No need to look far for crisis sources
Officials are slowly recognizing that substance abuses are mired deep in the heart and soul of society. They’re recognizing addictions cannot be reversed by suppling more addictive drugs to addicts. And they appear to finally realize they cannot reverse trends in addiction if the roots of the crisis are not identified and acted on.
In Alberta, Health Minister Hoffman has directed $400,000 to an “Opioid Emergency Response Commission.” In British Columbia, the government recently launched a lawsuit directed at makers of opioids such as OxyContin, and various distributing pharmacies the lawsuit says “should have known the quantities they were selling exceeded any legitimate market.”
That lawsuit should shake things up! I recall years ago, medical professionals and the like from nearby towns southwest of Calgary found themselves embroiled in a similar controversy. On the Green Ford First Nation along Highway 40 a short distance west of Longview, it was discovered that a very high percentage of the resident population at that place was either addicted to drugs or affected negatively by them. Primarily they’d become victims of legally manufactured pharmaceuticals obtained in nearby towns at the hand of legitimate licensed medical professionals.
I don’t recall how that crisis solved itself or if it was. But perhaps a reminder for Minister Hoffman, B.C. officials and anyone else trying hard to solve these difficulties today, to use examples such as Green Ford, not to look too far away for sources of the dilemma. Perhaps even native leadership, since outside these reserves the general population hears little about what leadership on these nations are advancing to solve the problem among their residents.
I’m not suggesting nothing is being done, or accomplishments aren’t ongoing. What I wish to state is that if there is progress in the area of substance abuses on First Nations, the media is inept in the reporting, and/or there simply isn’t any progress worthy of a report!
Alvin W. Shier
Lethbridge