奥颈迟丑听聽under the Sask. Party鈥檚 failed approach, the NDP called for a strategy for community safety and dedicated action to address the increase of opioids and crystal meth addictions.聽聽
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen the devastating toll that addiction takes on communities and families, but without a clear and comprehensive strategy, this crisis will continue to rage,鈥� said NDP Mental Health and Addictions Critic, Danielle Chartier.
鈥淎 strategy starts with providing improved access to naloxone kits, eliminating the wait times for detox and between detox and treatment and introducing dedicated mental health and addictions emergency rooms, so patients with mental health and addictions issues receive timely care, instead of getting triaged to the bottom and waiting longer for treatment. When someone struggling with addiction asks for help, that help needs to be there immediately, not several weeks later.鈥澛�
In the past two months the 2020 toll of overdose deaths in Regina has nearly doubled, from 33 to 63 鈥� a significant increase from the 21 deaths reported in 2019. Regina police have responded to 712 overdoses so far this year, up from 82 for all of 2019. In聽, Chartier learned the number of admissions to in-patient addictions for crystal meth rose from three per cent in 2012-13 up to 30.58 per cent in 2017-18.聽
The government has聽in the province in their 2020 budget. And in addition to the skyrocketing number of overdoses in Regina and Saskatoon,聽about an acute lack of access to treatments in Northern, remote and rural communities as well.聽
鈥淭he Sask. Party has been ignoring these problems for years and we know that their playbook of cuts and austerity will only mean more people falling through the cracks,鈥� Chartier said. 鈥淎n addictions strategy is desperately needed and any further delay simply means more Saskatchewan people will die.鈥�
