Regina police chief calls drug overdose numbers ‘staggering’
Coroner believes crystal meth and fentanyl behind majority of cases
As Regina’s number of drug overdoses climbs higher, the city’s chief of police is pushing for a combined effort from government to tackle the problem.
“It’s absolutely what I would call an epidemic that’s happening in our city and it’s not unique to our city. Saskatoon is going through something very similar, and most major cities in Canada are right now” said Regina Police Service (RPS) Chief Evan Bray during a phone interview Friday.
As of May 4, the RPS has reported 233 overdoses this year. That’s up from a total of 82 in 2019.
Police have attended 110 of this year’s overdoses, and administered Narcan 24 times. There have been 11 drug-related fatalities, and another 11 deaths that are still unconfirmed.
Saskatoon has also been seeing an increase in overdose calls, with Medavie Health Services West recently responding to 88 overdoses in one week. The Saskatchewan Coroner’s Service believes the majority of the overdoses involve fentanyl or crystal meth, or potentially a combination of the two.
Bray called the numbers “staggering.” He said police have been aggressively trying to disrupt the supply of drugs flowing into the city by making seizures on a weekly basis, but the problem is bigger than Regina. Bray said the drugs are often traced back to other cities, and the RPS has been working with the RCMP and other police agencies to combat trafficking.
Bray cautioned that police can only do so much. He referred to the epidemic as a health problem. One that multiple branches of government must address.
“I feel a bit like a broken record saying this, but we can limit the drugs and seize the drugs all we want. If we don’t solve the addiction problem, there are still a lot of people who are highly addicted that are going to do what they need to do to get that next fix. So it can’t just be working on enforcement and limiting the drug supply and targeting those that are dealing the drugs. We have to as a community and through health and other partners find a way to help those that are suffering with addictions,” said Bray.
Prior to the COVID -19 pandemic, Bray said there had been discussions on a municipal and provincial level about a co-ordinated effort among government agencies to fight the drug problem. Due to the pandemic, Bray said those conversations were stalled.
“It’s been somewhat held up by the pandemic because a lot of our contacts and people that we were working with in health have been scrambling to deal with really what is a very emergent situation that we’re dealing with, not just in our community but all over the world,” said Bray.
Bray said he has heard anecdotally that the pandemic has increased street drug prices due to it being more difficult to transport the supply between cities and provinces.
However, Bray said he has also heard speculation that supply issues are merely being used as an excuse to drive up prices.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority said COVID -19 may also be having an impact on those who use drugs because of boredom from isolation or increased anxiety. The SHA said it has seen an increase in requests from community-based organizations that service marginalized populations.
Four pharmacies in the province have been set up to hand out Naloxone kits without a prescription as part of the SHA’S publicly funded Naloxone kit program.