Drug Problem Growing in Smaller, Rural Saskatchewan Centers: RCMP | The Canadian News

Last year was a record year for overdose deaths in Saskatchewan.

The Saskatchewan Coroner’s Service announced this week that 464 people died from confirmed or suspected drug overdoses in 2021, up from 327 in 2020 and 179 in 2019.

In Regina and Saskatoon alone there was a combined 172 confirmed drug overdose deaths in 2021.

However, while many of the province’s deaths occur in the province’s two largest municipalities, there are concerns regarding rising numbers being reported in smaller centers and rural areas.

One community concerned about the rising numbers is Yorkton, Sask.

Saint Sgt. Burton Jones took over as detachment commander of the Yorkton RCMP detachment in July 2021.

In an interview with Global News, Jones said the task force has been called to five confirmed fentanyl overdose deaths since becoming task force commander.

In the same time period, he added that there were at least 10 cases where RCMP members used Narcan to revive a person.

Jones said fentanyl has become a significant problem in the city and area.

“I think it’s more of an issue or a problem here than we suspected,” he suggested. “It’s become very cheap and it’s very easy to get, and that’s why it’s become a very popular drug in and around this area.”

It’s not the only factor contributing to the overall problem, according to Jones.

He said many in the community don’t know or realize that the synthetic opioid is creating social problems in their own neighborhoods.

“The problem with fentanyl is that it’s so dangerous as a drug because it’s 100 times more potent than morphine,” Jones explained. “A small amount is enough to kill someone.”

Jones mentioned that he recently met with the Yorkton city council to discuss the seriousness of the drug situation in the community.

Even the members of the municipal council were not prepared to hear the kind of impact the drug is having in their municipality.

“It was a huge surprise and shock to us to learn that,” Yorkton Mayor Mitch Hippsley said. “We always suspected it was here, but we had no idea how heavy it was here.”

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Hippsley believes that the community awareness factor is key to knowing how to attack the problem in a city where the population is approximately 18,000.

“This is something we hear about happening in big cities, so you want to pretend it doesn’t happen here, but it has migrated here and it’s becoming a bigger problem,” he said.

“When we find out that we have five (overdose deaths) in the last six months, on a per capita basis you end up with 11 to 12 in a year in a city our size. So do we care? We are absolutely worried.”

Hippsley hopes that better communication and community outreach can help reduce the number of overdose deaths, and eventually reduce the amount of drugs on the streets in and around the city.

‘A rough road for all of us’

Jones emphasized that fentanyl is also present in rural and remote parts of Saskatchewan.

Colleen Larocque, a resident of Spy Hill, a town about 100 kilometers southeast of Yorkton near the Saskatchewan-Manitoba border, lost her son Mitchell Sveinbjornson, 29, to a drug overdose on August 22, 2020. .

The night he died, he told Global News, he was out with a group of friends and eventually went to buy cocaine. However, the toxicology report showed that fentanyl and carfentanil were present in the medications he took.

Sveinbjornson had two daughters and six brothers.

“They’re building these drugs out of anything they can get their hands on,” Larocque said of drug suppliers.

“There have been a number of overdoses in rural, very rural, Saskatchewan over the last year with people you would never expect.”

Larocque said he understands the drugs were purchased somewhere in the Yorkton area as determined by the investigation, but there are still questions about where his son obtained them.

He said a couple of things he would like to see more of in rural communities are drug test strips and detox or rehab beds.

“Accessibility in this province is very bad,” Larocque said.

“As a community through COVID, we have worked so hard on mental health issues that our overdose numbers shouldn’t be going up to where they are. It’s definitely not getting better.”

Larocque suggested that parents with teens or young adults in their family should have a naloxone kit in their home and learn how to use it.

“You may not need it for your child, but you may need it for your friend. You never know,” Larocque said.

“All of my children have kits in their homes now, whether they are users or not. At least they have a chance to save someone if the opportunity presents itself.

— with files by Nathaniel Dove