Keewaywin still battling prescription drug abuse

Although Keewaywin’s drastic measures to stop prescription drug abuse have gradually dissolved over the past year, the community continues to battle prescription drug abuse.
“The task force kind of dissolved over the course of that time because there were many unanswered questions about what the law and what Health Canada and what the clinic can do to support this problem,” said Keewaywin Chief David Thompson, who won the election for chief in April over previous chief Joe Meekis.
The drastic measures included providing welfare benefit cards for use only at the Northern Store, checking every person arriving at the airport and checking all suspicious parcels at the post office.
“My son thought this was a good thing because his welfare lasted longer with the benefit cards and if it was established again I don’t think he would mind it,” Thompson said. “But I think it doesn’t help the situation because I’ve had calls where people would ask me to buy their benefit cards. They would tell me there was $300 in there, ‘I’ll sell it to you for $150.’”
Thompson said the Northern Store gained the most benefit from the cards as all welfare recipients had to make their purchases at that business. He also indicated there is only so much that can be done while checking incoming bags at the airport.
“They are still checking bags, but most of the stuff being transported is on the individual,” Thompson said. “There is very little you can do to the individual.”
Thompson said the checking of parcels at the post office required the presence of chief or council members, who could ask people to open the parcels.
“But the police cannot do that unless they have a warrant,” Thompson said. “The other sad part to it is you’ve actually got parents involved; they may not know that they are actually being used to transport some of this stuff.”
Thompson said it is mainly the adults who are using prescription drugs in his community.
“It is not so much the Elders, it’s more in between,” Thompson said. “People are selling whatever they can sell, whatever is valuable. They sell just about anything just to be able to try to get a fix.”
Thompson cannot understand the thoughts of the community members who are trafficking prescription drugs in the community.
“It’s really frustrating,” he said.
Thompson has been working with band council to bring in a number of changes to prevent prescription drug abuse, including cutting down on advances, loans, purchase orders and assistance for airfares.
“We are encouraging Tikinagan to get involved more and also we have asked the NAPS officers to submit incident reports with their superiors so when Ontario looks at the actual statistics they will know there is a lot happening,” Thompson said. “Without these statistics, they will just assume this is a really good community.”
According to last year’s numbers, Thompson said there are about 80 people, including about 50 hard-core users, who are addicted to prescription drugs in his community of about 386 on-reserve band members.
“Some of our (high school) students are getting into this kind of problem,” Thompson said.
He added: “It’s a real concern for us and I don’t know how we are going to address it and how we are going to deal with it because the law is there but they can only do so much, the health services are there but they can only do so much, and when we provide special assistance for individuals who are serious about seeking help we can only do so much.”