As drug deaths climb, advocates hope Manitoba NDP victory brings harm reduction supports - Action News
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Manitoba

As drug deaths climb, advocates hope Manitoba NDP victory brings harm reduction supports

Overdose awareness advocates say theyre not surprised Manitoba recorded 44 drug-related deaths in May, according to data released this week but they hope more supports to help prevent those deaths will be coming after the NDP were elected Tuesday.

Latest drug-related deaths data prompts renewed calls for supervised consumption sites

A woman with long dark hair wearing a pink shirt with white polka dots and jeans is sitting on a chair in her living room with her dog beside her.
Arlene Last-Kolb from Moms Stop the Harm is seen in a file photo. She said she's optimistic more harm reduction support will be available soon, after the NDP's election win Tuesday night. (Travis Golby/CBC)

Overdose awareness advocates say they're not surprised to learn Manitoba recorded 44 drug-related deaths in May but hope more supports to help prevent those deaths will soon be available under the province's new government.

"This is sort of in a way what I've been advocating for. This is where my advocacy has led me," advocate Arlene Last-Kolb said Wednesday, a day after an election that brought the NDP to power in Manitoba.

Last-Kolb, with the group Moms Stop the Harm, said she hopes the NDP makes good onits past promise to support the opening of at least one supervised consumption site in Manitobasomething the outgoing Manitoba Progressive Conservative government has long opposed.

"I knew that the PC government would never change their mind with harm reduction,"said Last-Kolb.

"We know what to do here. We just were never given the opportunity."

According to data released by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Tuesday, Manitoba saw 44 drug-related deaths in May of this year thehighest monthly number since at least January 2022, which is as far back as the province's monthly preliminary data is available online.

Numbers like that show how important supporting a harm reduction approach is, said Last-Kolb.

"It's incredibly sad that this keeps happening,"she told CBCon Tuesday, after the medical examiner's data was released.

"[But] I'm not surprised."

A woman wearing a black shirt that says RaY holds a kit filled with vials and needles.
Breda Vosters, with the non-profit Resource Assistance for Youth, is seen here in a file photo. She holds one of the organization's injectable naloxone kits. (Josh Crabb/CBC)

Breda Vosters, who works with the non-profit Resource Assistance for Youth, said a few factors likely contributed to the high number of deaths, including a naloxone shortage and the strength of drugs.

Last spring, community organizations and pharmacies said they were running low on injectable naloxone, a medication that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose and is normallyavailable in free kits through a government program.

Vosters said that shortage is continuing, forcing organizations like hers to ration the number of kits they giveout.

"Our stocks are getting lower and lower and we're not able to keep up with demand," she said Tuesday afternoon.

And with substances on the streets becoming stronger, Vosters said each overdose intervention usually requires both injectable naloxone and nasal naloxone kits, the latter of which aren't available through the government program.

"They're getting stronger and stronger and the interventions aren't being able to keep up," Vosters said, adding that fentanylis a major contributor to overdoses. That drugwas involved in 25 of the 44 deaths in May, according to the provincial data.

But like Last-Kolb, Vosters is optimistic the election of an NDP government will meanmore supports to prevent overdoses.

A man stands behind a podium that says Wab Kinew. Behind him is a grand staircase with large bison statues at either side.
Premier-designate Wab Kinew speaks Wednesday at the Manitoba Legislative Building. He has previously promised to support the opening of at least one supervised consumption site in Manitoba. (Travis Golby/CBC)

"We need to support every kind of intervention that we can," said Vosters. Increasedavailability of detox beds, improved access to rapid access to addiction medicine (or RAAM)clinics, and supervised consumption sites are among her hopes for the new government.

A supervised consumption site "would be a really strong step, and I think communitywould be able to jump on that really quickly and get something in place within a handful of months, if not sooner," she said Wednesday.

In the meantime, Vosters and Last-Kolb said it's likely that Manitoba will have recorded an even higher number of drug-related deaths in the summer months.

"It's not going to go away," said Last-Kolb.

With files from Susan Magas