Content Warning: The following story discusses opioid addiction and overdose. The CHIMO helpline is available 24/7 at 1-800-667-5005.
If you suspect that you or someone else has overdosed, call 911 immediately.
Ashley Legere is the only person from Sackville who attended the “Getting to Tomorrow” conference earlier this month.
CHMA coverage of the “Getting to Tomorrow” event, which is available here.
Legere has spoken with CHMA before to talk about the harm reduction program she started at the Corner Drug Store, where she formerly worked as a pharmacy assistant.
Since then, Legere has accepted a new position with Ensemble Moncton as a part of their needle distribution services.
She says that opioids containing dangerous amounts of fentanyl are present in Sackville.
Ashley Legere: Having developed significant and meaningful relationships with addicts and recovering addicts… Fentanyl is prevalent in Sackville. Because a lot of that supplies coming from Moncton, I think, as well as Port Elgin and Nova Scotia. I give out fentanyl testing strips with almost every care package I give out now, and it’s because my patients have said to me, “fentanyl is prevalent in drugs.” But it’s the only supply they have, they are still using the drugs. So that is terrifying. There is no safe supply and you don’t know what you’re getting. But you can only get what you get. They’ll test it for fentanyl, make sure they’re using with someone else with a NARCAN kit, and still use it. That’s happening here. That’s multiple addicts in our community who are testing their supply for fentanyl end up becoming an upcoming back positive.
COVID-19 is putting the already marginalized population of opioid users at further risk.
AL: [It’s] the worst day of your life every day. You wake up and you’re sick. So the first thing you have to do is figure out how you’re going to get money to get drugs so you’re not sick. A lot of that is dependent on sex work and panhandling. We’re in a pandemic with a very contagious communicable disease. A lot of the sex workers that I spoken with recently, a lot of their clients are long-haul transport drivers. These people travel outside of the province all the time don’t have to self-isolate, there’s all kinds of significant risk that comes along with that. But they’re not worried about that, they’re worried about not being sick.
Accessibility to existing services is an issue in rural areas, and Sackville is not exempt.
AL: If you don’t have access to things like toilet paper and toothbrushes, how are you going to pay for an iPhone that your [social] worker requires you to FaceTime with them to see. These are these are all kinds of issues that are well above above like… these are requirements that are well above the socioeconomic status of the people that they’re trying to help.
During the “Getting to Tomorrow” conference, Sackville’s lack of emergency shelter was addressed.
AL: So one of the things that was discussed broadly across our focus groups was housing issues. One especially in Sackville, where we don’t have emergency emergency shelter. So someone in a domestic violence situation… if someone is just ousted from their home or want to leave a bad situation where there’s drugs or violence and need to leave immediately. There’s no options for them here.
Legere wonders if Sackville’s pre-existing infrastructure could be repurposed for emergency housing.
AL: There’s a lot of like empty area in the hospital here that’s not being utilized overnight. So why wouldn’t that be a viable option? Reusing or repurposing already in place infrastructure to at least address some immediate need for emergency housing in Sackville or in any rural community that doesn’t have an emergency way to help someone in an immediate situation. The only idea I came up with is repurposing existing infrastructure. And then I thought, well, why not hospital? Why not places like a sort of government building that’s not being used, especially during a pandemic, where every employee’s working from home. How that looks, or how that gets started, or how I would work on that to make that a reality is above my paygrade for sure.
CHMA will reconnect with Legere next week to discuss an upcoming project involving Ensemble Moncton.
