Blood Tribe looks to tackle fentanyl crisis on southern Alberta reserve

Dr. Susan Christenson slips a pill containing the drug Suboxone under her 31-year-old patient's tongue.

• FATAL ADDICTION | Recovering fentanyl addict on his 'freak out' at Walmart

The woman, who we will call T to protect her privacy, is a resident of Kainai Nation west of Lethbridge. The Blood Tribe member is addicted to fentanyl and Suboxone is used to treat her addiction, keeping the withdrawal symptoms that lead to relapse under control.

Waiting for the pill to dissolve, Christenson moves on to assess the young addict's withdrawal symptoms.

"You were feeling some restlessness this morning. How are you now?" 

T is lucky to be alive. A week earlier, she went to her dealer's house in Standoff, Alta., and overdosed on fentanyl — an opiate 100 times more potent than morphine.

"I snorted one pill and felt nothing. I did another. As soon as I did it, I dropped to the ground and stopped breathing."

The following day her family drove her to Calgary where she spent eight days at a detox centre.

This is an all too common story on this reserve south of Calgary, the area perhaps worst hit by Alberta's fentanyl crisis.

The chief of the reserve has said 20 people have taken fatal doses of fentanyl over the past six months, and another 60 have overdosed and survived.

State of emergency issued

The band declared a state of emergency in early March. Since then, there have been numerous strategies put in place to try and stop the rampant use of fentanyl, or what are called Oxy 80s on the reserve.

Christenson decided to become rarity among family physicians in the province, and get her licence to prescribe Suboxone.

"I wanted a tool that could actually help. Abstinence has a 80 to 90 per cent failure rate," she said.

The doctor is a member of the Blood Tribe, although she was raised in southern California.

"This is my community. Every single death affects me personally," said Christenson.

Within a month of getting her Suboxone licence, she has about eight patients on the drug and about another six on a wait-list.

Gail Chase had been living in Calgary working as a social worker for 25 years when she was lured back to her home reserve to help.

"They needed someone to co-ordinate the crisis response team."

Chase says the band has come together to tackle the illicit drug use problem.

Naloxone kits

The most widely known initiative has been the introduction of take home Naloxone kits. Naloxone is an anti-overdose drug that needs to be injected soon after an overdose to work.

Roughly 47 band members — including the husband of the addict T — were trained in administering the drug. None has reported having to use one yet.

The band is also starting a 24-hour help line (403-737-HELP) for addicts and their families to call for help with overdoses and treatment options.

The Blood Tribe police have donated a vehicle that is used to drive those recovering from opiate addictions to doctor appointments.

Chase says there are programs for the children, especially the nine or 10 kids who "are basically orphans because of the deaths in the community."

Police have also created a crime reduction unit and set up an anonymous tipline — [email protected] — for residents to get information to police.

Sgt. Gary Mitchell says they can't do traditional policing on the reserve because everyone knows who they are.

"We stick out. So hopefully what we're trying to do is build up our intelligence, information from the public via the Oxy-80 line. Sometimes it's not so good, other times it is pretty good. There's also the cultivation of informants."