Prescription drug abuse

Prescription drug abuse made the headlines many times over the past year, making it Wawatay’s health story of the year.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation leaders discussed how prescription drug abuse has affected themselves or their families, Suboxone treatment successes were highlighted and a three-part feature on beating prescription drug addictions was printed and posted online with videos.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation Deputy Grand Chief Mike Metatawabin said he was “scared” when his daughter told him she had been prescribed Percocets after undergoing a Caesarean section during the recent birth of her baby.
“I’m taken aback,” Metatawabin said. “I can’t believe it, but at the same time a friend of mine earlier this summer had an incident too where he was hurt and they prescribed him percs. And he refused them.”
Metatawabin said he’s heard many stories where people have become addicted to prescription drugs such as Percocets and OxyContin after having the painkillers prescribed to them by doctors.
“Why do they authorize these doctors to prescribe them,” Metatawabin said. “It’s having a devastating impact, destroying communities, destroying the well-being of families. It’s shocking. I want to look into this. I want to know if there are alternatives.”
Two Suboxone treatment successes were featured, including one about an Eabametoong couple who turned their lives around after undergoing the community’s Suboxone treatment program.
Melanie Oskineegish first got hooked on OxyContin prescription drugs after “just” trying them.
“I liked it and I kept doing it,” Oskineegish said.
Her partner Richard Quisses recommends the Suboxone treatment program.
“I was (among) the first clients going in,” Quisses said. “The four of us completed the program, but there’s a few that went off the program and went back to the stuff they were on. Myself, I haven’t touched anything.”
Doris Slipperjack’s battle against prescription drugs was also featured in a story about the world premiere of The Life You Want.
“I feel like I’m fighting a battle within myself,” Slipperjack said in the film, which features her battle against prescription drug abuse. “And that’s a never-ending battle. I thought being high was everything; being high was my world. But it’s not because when I was high I couldn’t even think, I couldn’t even feel.”
Slipperjack eventually signed up for a treatment program using Suboxone, a combination medication program that treats adults dependent on opiates such as oxycodone or
morphine.
“It’s like a substitute, you know how your mind is always thinking of opiates,” Slipperjack said. “It’s like a blocker; it prevents you from doing. It helped me with the withdrawals at the beginning, but now I’m feeling good.”
The Wawatay three-part feature included a story on Melanie Beardy, a mother of four who was attempting to beat her addiction to OxyContin. Four other women were also featured.
Beardy said OxyContin was the first thing she reached for when she awoke in the morning, noting she was using at least half an 80-milligram tablet a day.
She said her addiction affected her children emotionally, physically, spiritually and she wasn’t there to nurture them or comfort them when they cried.
The feature also included a story on the frontline workers who are trying to help prescription drug addicts in their communities.