A dangerous problem often said to be plaguing the city’s downtown core, drug addiction also tears apart families and livelihoods.
As a result, the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA), hosted a panel of three industry experts and one concerned citizen familiar with the topic.
One of the panelists, Bonnie Lee, says the first step toward a cleaner life is family therapy, but that cannot happen if the community fails to unite.
“An event like this is what Lethbridge is doing right, bringing community together and trying to understand this complex syndrome of addiction,” said Lee.
She says supporting therapy for those afflicted by addiction is paramount to success, but family and friends who surround the addicted person must also receive therapy and/or training in many circumstances.
“People always say, ‘let’s communicate’, as if it’s that simple. It’s actually something very complex,” said Lee.
She adds that communication, family support and addictions counselling must all come together to help people overcome drug use.
Furthermore, Lee says addiction is not the problem itself, but a “symptom of the problem”, indicating that no blame should be placed upon those dealing with this issue.
“Addiction is a relationship problem that stems from early childhood trauma,” said Lee.
Meanwhile, panelist Robin James of the Lethbridge Housing Authority, says the province is currently taking a positive approach in many ways by ensuring those struggling with addiction can find have a roof over their head.
“Removing those user fees across Alberta has been instrumental,” said James.
She also says Lethbridge is ramping up its efforts in this area as well, seeing more funding and more support.
“Lethbridge is moving towards a safe, responsible housing focused on current gaps in our housing continuum,” said James.
However, not every panelist agreed with James that those struggling with addiction should be housed within the city.
Dennis Bremner, the self-proclaimed “black sheep” of the panel, says he has been working with Blackfoot Elders to see a facility created outside of city limits that will house and help those in need.
He says this will remove them from the temptations of the city, while also helping to alleviate stress on businesses downtown.
“When we send people to rehab, the very first thing we do is remove them from all the bad influences and try to place them somewhere far from where there is familiar ground,” said Bremner.
Furthermore, he says Lethbridge will fall down the same rabbit hole as other cities, such as Vancouver, if treatment centres are continuing to operate at their current standard.
“I think we’re doing a lot of right with manpower, but I think we’re doing a lot of things wrong with the whole system … I don’t follow what everyone is doing because I’ve seen it fail in too many places,” said Bremner.
He says his plan of a facility outside of the city would work to help both Standoff and Lethbridge, by cleaning up the streets while simultaneously supporting those who need help.
“Relieve Standoff of any problem people that they have, send them to the facility and we do the same [in Lethbridge]. Both get the opportunity to ensure they’ve got safety and security in their respective city,” said Bremner.
With another viewpoint on the matter, Chelsey DeGroot, program manager with Drug Treatment Court McMan Youth, says people who are struggling with addiction and facing criminal charges should be afforded help, not punishment.
“Looking at incarcerating for those that are struggling with addiction, if jail worked in rehabilitating people, we wouldn’t need them because everyone would be rehabilitated,” said DeGroot.
She says drug courts will enable people to serve time for any committed crimes while simultaneously helping rid themselves of addiction.
She says she used to work at the safe consumption site and says it was a success in Lethbridge, despite popular opinion.
“Did it ruin our community? No, it didn’t. We saw some success and unfortunately a lot of people in our community didn’t get to because they didn’t believe in the work that we did,” said DeGroot.
SACPA afforded members of the community a voice during the event as well, with people like Alvin Mills speaking about his Indigenous recovery camps outside of Lethbridge.
He says there are hundreds of Indigenous people struggling with addiction in Lethbridge right now.
“Every time we start talking on this, we have to include the Indigenous … 310 members from the Blood Reserve alone,” said Mills.
He says his recovery camp from last year saw huge successes, and he hopes to see more support this year, especially from the government.
“September the 30, the funding got pulled by Ottawa, but we still made an impact,” said Mills.
Even so, he is severely concerned about the drug problem facing the community.
“Right now, the opioid crisis is at the worst it’s ever been,” said Mills.
In the end, all members from the SACPA panel, as well as the community members who spoke during the event, agree that something needs to be done to help those facing this seemingly insurmountable task on their road to recovery.
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