Jayden Skinner: ‘It’s not just a place to get high’
Jayden Skinner’s first real taste of fentanyl came out of desperation.
It was 2017 and Skinner, then 18, who uses they/their pronouns, was sprawled in their Vancouver bedroom, knocked flat by back problems. A friend asked if they wanted the pain to go away.
“He kneeled in front of me, and I had the straw in my mouth, and he held a piece of foil up to the straw, and he lit it. He just gave me tiny little doses until it was the second or third one that brought me out of it,” Skinner said. “I wasn’t in pain anymore.”
The friend made Skinner promise to never do it again, to never get addicted — a pledge Skinner tried to keep. But once the fentanyl hit the bloodstream, there was no going back.
Skinner is now clean at 21, but still remembers how quickly fentanyl pulled them under.
That first hit was for pain; the second, because they wanted it; and by the third hit, they were using to fight back withdrawal.
Before that first hit, the Medicine Hat native was already well acquainted with drugs, which were a way to escape a turbulent home life complicated by diagnoses of autism, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). At age 16, Skinner left home. For the next nine months, their life spiralled out of control and drugs — including weed, cocaine, ecstasy and, finally, meth — were along for the ride.
“I come from a pretty well-to-do family,” they said, sounding slightly surprised at the way things unfolded, even a couple years later. “I had a career plan. I was going to be a mechanic.”
In many ways, Skinner’s story speaks to the challenges many people who use drugs are facing. Experts say that childhood trauma and unstable families can contribute to drug use.
In 2017, Alberta Health Services looked at all the people who died from an overdose in the province and found a large majority had a psychiatric condition, or a diagnosed anxiety or mood disorder like depression.
Eventually, drugs became an escape for Skinner; a way to “hit the f--- it switch” after one too many run-ins with family.
When the friend who introduced Skinner to fentanyl left town, the urge to inject drugs stayed and they were afraid to go it alone. “He was kind of my safety blanket … the one who was the experienced user,” Skinner said. “He can keep me from overdosing, he can keep me alive.”
So they turned to Insite, Vancouver’s long-running supervised consumption site. It was a lousy feeling to have to be there, but during one of their first visits, a nurse showed Skinner how to inject without going too deep or damaging a vein.
“It’s not just a place to get high. They teach you how to avoid dying, essentially.”
Skinner is now back in Medicine Hat, working toward being independent, something they don’t think would be possible without the sites.
“I do not have a single collapsed vein despite doing two or three shots minimum a day. I have never had an abscess because I had access to these clean needles,” they said. “I have four healthy, scar-free limbs.”