Saint John harm-reduction service happy to see province's five-year addiction plan
A Saint John group says New Brunswick's new five-year addictions and mental health strategy couldn't come sooner for the city.
The plan, which includes commitments to introduce walk-in addictions services and overdose prevention sites, was announced earlier this week.
Julie Dingwell, the executive director of Avenue B Harm Reduction, said that for more than 20 years, she has been working with local people who use drugs.
While there has always been drug use, she said the increase since she's started has been steep.
"In 1999, when I started, we gave out 750 needles and I thought at the time, 'wow, what a lot of needles,'" said Dingwell.
"Last year we distributed over 400,000 needles … there's a lot of drug use in the city."
Dingwell said the clinic sees close to 60 people every day and deals with 950 people overall.
They offer products to make using drugs safer.
"New injecting equipment, we now have crystal meth pipes, they might be looking for a safer inhalation kit, which is a crack kit," said Dingwell.
"We give out whatever we can to try to keep people safe. Our whole idea is to keep people free from disease."
Underlying issues
Dingwell said it's important not just to look at the city's drug problem as simply one caused by the drugs, but to look at the underlying causes of addiction.
"Most of the people who would come to us have trauma, and are operating with that daily, and poverty," said Dingwell.
"When you combine a lot of trauma and then a lot of poverty, dire poverty ... there's no ability to move forward."
Dingwell said there needs to be a focus on programing both to help people get off drugs and to deal with trauma so people don't become drug users.
She also would like to see more access to naloxone kits, which Avenue B gives out.
"We just need to make it very easy for people to get a naloxone kit," said Dingwell.
"They're very easy to use. You can learn to use one in about, you know, two to three minutes, really."
Dingwell said whatever is done, it needs to come from a place of compassion, not judgment, for drug users.
"They don't come from another planet, another country, they're not dropped on us," said Dingwell.
"These are moms and brothers and fathers and sisters and friends. And nobody wakes up and says, 'Oh, you know what? I think I'm going to start using heavy drugs.'"
