There is no one prescription for opioid addiction.
It is a social problem without equal. The devastating impact it has on human lives is incalculable. And it is insidious.
Try to arrest your way through it, and it springs up again and again just like the many-headed hydra of old.
Try to let it be, it merely spreads and festers, creating wastelands of closed shops, drug dens in formerly thriving neighbourhoods, and tent cities in formerly family-friendly greenspaces.
Try for harm reduction or safe supply, and soon you will have a community up in arms. Protests, counter-protests, screaming, shouting and dark ugly sentiments expressed as casual facts.
Try to ignore it, and the more it gets in your face and overflows all your social safety nets and institutions.
Try to treat it, and you quickly run out of beds and spaces.
Try to block it out, and you will soon be confronted by the nightmare of dead children, dead parents, and dozens upon dozens of opioid deaths. And whole generations lost to the zombie shuffle, their glazed eyes holding only meaninglessness.
It is not only our social system which is overwhelmed when dealing with these opioids, it has a very real toll on families; so much grief, and mourning. They are the ones who are left to remember.
Whatever our response, it always has to start with compassion. Compassion for the families, and compassion for those whose addictions led them into a dark world of overdose and possible death. If we do not have that as our first response, then we really have no place to start as a community.
While Cochrane and Rocky View County, do not have as many resources to deal with opioid addictions in our communities, and are heavily reliant on Calgary for its resources, there are still local initiatives which could use more volunteers and more support.
We would encourage residents to help in any way they can.
