Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq drug abuse rampant
Chief: Over 20% in Indian Brook hooked on prescription meds
By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE
Halifax Chronicle-Herald
INDIAN BROOK, N.S. — The 18 names on a piece of paper on Doreen Bernard’s kitchen table are people from this First Nations community whose deaths have been related to prescription drug use over the past few years.
Ms. Bernard lives in constant fear the list will grow longer.
"This one here died after getting hit by a car — he was just after getting his drugs and was going home to do them," she said, pointing to the name of someone who was so anxious to use his drugs that he wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing.
"This one here took his grandmother’s OxyContin patches — she had cancer and needed them for pain — and he overdosed on them," she said.
"He was only 13 years old and he died like that.
"I think his grandmother died of a broken heart."
One family lost three brothers, all to drug overdoses.
Ms. Bernard, a support worker with the Lnu’wey Healing project of Mi’kmaq Family and Children’s Services, has seen enough pain to last a lifetime.
"It’s like a genocide — people in our community see addicts giving themselves needles and they see needles in ditches along the roadside and this is not what we are all about."
"This is not just an Indian Brook problem, it’s in communities like Eskasoni, Millbrook, all First Nations communities," Ms. Bernard said.
"I could give you another list for places like Eskasoni — it’s horrible."
Chief Alex McDonald said out of the 1,400 people on the Indian Brook reserve near Shubenacadie, he figures at least 300 are addicted to prescription drugs.
"You’ve got people walking around the rez like zombies and some of them are only 10 or 11 years old," he said.
"I swear to God they’re sticking needles in their arms. We’ve got hepatitis running rampant in this community because of the drugs. It’s big time in Shubie.
"Everybody thinks we have it so good because we get free drugs. People got to know the truth.
"We can get all the free (prescription painkiller) OxyContin we want, all the hard drugs for free, but we have to pay for a leg brace or an asthma puffer and you have to ask why that is."
Mr. McDonald blames Health Canada.
"Health Canada knows exactly who’s getting quadruple prescriptions and they know the names of the doctors who are over-prescribing; it’s all on their computers," he said.
"I can walk into five doctors’ offices in one day and get enough prescriptions for 100 pills and Health Canada will pay for it and the government pays three times what anyone else will pay for the same drugs."
In fact, as far back as 1997 and every year since, Canada’s auditor general has criticized Health Canada, saying the department is not doing enough to stop physicians from over-prescribing mood-altering drugs.
Since Health Canada pays for prescriptions for First Nations people, it is aware of what is being prescribed and which pharmacies are doing the supplying.
Dr. Richard MacLachlan, a faculty member at Dalhousie University in Halifax, is the chairman of a committee looking into native drug use for Health Canada.
Dr. MacLachlan said the committee has concerns about the prescribing rate for drugs in the Valium (diazepam) family and in the narcotics family (OxyContin, Dilaudid).
"Two weeks ago we spoke to members of the Atlantic Policy Congress to express our concerns," said Dr. Mac-Lachlan.
"I’m pleased to say we received a unanimous endorsement of three recommendations."
Those proposals include asking the province to place the benzodiazapine (mood-altering) class of drugs on the province’s prescription monitoring program and to ask Ottawa to ensure physicians only prescribe the drugs for 30 days initially.
"We have to develop protocols for weaning people off these drugs," Dr. MacLachlan said. ""It is a very long and complicated process, especially when you have patients who’ve been taking them for years."
Dr. MacLachlan said he can’t release numbers on the prescribing of narcotics, but figures they’re high.
"At first blush, there are a lot of narcotics being prescribed.
"We heard very clearly from the 35 chiefs, there are concerns about drug use. . . . The communities are hurting," he said.
"The federal government is taking this very seriously and the Nova Scotia Department of Aboriginal Affairs is taking it very seriously. It’s really the No. 1 health issue."
The doctor said it’s important to work with native chiefs and with both government levels.
"We’re not the white knight charging in on a horse and saying I’m the one to solve the problems."
Ms. Bernard said native communities don’t need a white knight but they could use some kind of saviour.
"People need hope that help is on the way — that there will be treatment for them to get through this," she said.
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