Photo: Jonathan Weiss / dreamstime.com

By Shane Clausing

opioid crisis

Northreach Society monitoring following spike in opioid-related calls in Edmonton

Jul 22, 2021 | 2:37 PM

Grande Prairie’s Northreach Society says it is concerned given the recent number of opioid-related calls received by Alberta Health Services and EMS teams in Edmonton.

According to AHS, there were 139 opioid-related calls from July 12-18.

Community Based Health and STBBI Program Manager Lindsay Loset with the Northreach Society says at this time, they don’t know if the drugs in Edmonton they believe are causing these overdoses have made their way up north.

“Typically, we watch out for alerts like that, whether it’s an increase in opioid-related EMS calls or increase in overdoses reported in Edmonton or further south in Alberta. Because that was last week, there is a possibility that those same substances could be up in Grande Prairie. We don’t ever really know what’s in our drug supply, which is usually toxic,” said Loset.

“There is a possibility that it is coming from Edmonton or it’s already here or we have other drugs to worry about too. It’s all kind of a ‘high risk’ situation depending on how you look at it.”

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Loset adds the Northreach Society is ready for a potential spike in cases within the next two weeks if the drug supply from Edmonton has made its way to the Swan City.

“Our supervised consumption site has been made aware of what’s going on in Edmonton, we’ll do the best that we can.”

Those who are using substances are encouraged to only use at a supervised consumption site or with someone who knows how to use a naloxone kit.

“We are encouraging naloxone with every interaction and making sure people are trained up on it and making sure they have it on hand. We are also encouraging people to not use alone,” said Loset.

“It’s just kind of like a word-of-mouth situation for us and we’d encourage other people to do the same too. If they are working with people or are friends with those who are using substances, that’s all we can do from our point of view anyway.”

The most recent figures provided by Alberta Health show that in the first four months of 2021, there have been 18 accidental drug poisoning deaths in Grande Prairie, 17 of which have been linked to opioids.

Grande Prairie is also coming off a record year for opioid related fatalities in 2020, when 33 people died from an overdose.