Keewaywin First Nation leaders appealing for help to deal with prescription drug problem
Drug abuse sparks crisis on reserve
BRYAN MEADOWS - November 22, 2009
Illegal use of prescription drugs is so rampant on the Keewaywin First Nation that the band‘s chief has declared “a state of crisis.”
“Keewaywin is completely overwhelmed . . . ,” Chief Joe Meekis told The Chronicle-Journal.
He estimates that almost half of the remote reserve‘s adult population is abusing prescription narcotics.
The impact of this epidemic is particularly acute because, he said, most of the people abusing Oxycontin and Percocet are the principal breadwinners and heads of their households.
“This does not only hurt the people who are abusing drugs,” he said. “The impacts touch everyone in the community from their children, their partners and the elders. No one is left unharmed by the abuse of drugs.”
Meekis estimates that about 80 people are abusing prescription narcotics, mostly middle-aged people.
“At least 50 people are highly addicted and their habit costs them around $140 per day,” he said.
To feed their addiction, Meekis said, “people are selling everything in their homes.
“Children are going hungry because parents are spending grocery money on pills. There is no food in their homes and the children are the ones who are suffering the most,” he said.
The problem is so acute, Meekis claims that the arrival of prescription narcotics was interrupted for two days earlier this month and people began to show signs of withdrawal.
However, he said the Oxycontin and Percocet returned once people came into the community to attend a funeral this week.
Meekis has asked social services agencies and other First Nations to help the community cope. He plans to discuss the issue Monday with Northern chiefs at a meeting on the Fort William First Nation, and is calling for a summit of First Nation leadership, native and non-native agencies to find a solution to dealing with the crisis.
With an on-reserve population of about 400 people, the Keewaywin First Nation is located northwest of Red Lake along the Ontario/Manitoba border.
Meanwhile, Keewaywin is not the only remote aboriginal community on the prescription narcotic pipeline.
Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service have intercepted more than $13,000 worth of Percocet pills destined for the remote Webequie, Neskantaga and Eabametoong First Nations.
Police seized the pills during searches at a Thunder Bay residence and airport two weeks ago.
Two men and three women face charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking and another man faces a possession charge as a result of the police investigation.