Addiction to drugs and alcohol needs to be treated as a health issue for Indigenous people, with a focus on addressing the trauma and pain.
This week was National Addictions Awareness Week in Canada. Each year, the third week of November is set aside to recognize and learn about the serious issue of addictions to drugs and alcohol.
This week across Indian country events were held to educate the youth about the dangers and pitfalls of addictions.
Addictions are our modern-day plague and like all the others it is a product of colonization. When Europeans first landed on Turtle Island, they carried diseases for which our people had no resistance.
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Diseases like smallpox, measles and even the common cold seriously reduced our population. In fact, the depopulation of the Americas remains the largest human die-off in history.
The initial diseases were replaced by tuberculosis in the 20th century. Today, many First Nations families can recall family members who survived or succumbed to the disease.
The postwar emphasis on public health inoculated the population and tuberculosis decreased to the point that all the TB sanatoriums in Saskatchewan were shut down.
Today the new plague is addictions and its ruining lives and killing our people.
In the early 1960s, the provincial governments extended the access to alcohol to all citizens, including First Nations people. Alcohol had been a problem in the past, but now with ready access to it, alcoholism became a serious problem.
Addiction to drugs and alcohol are seen by settler governments as a social problem, linked to a lack of moral fibre or an individual weakness. This way the public can feel free to ignore, condemn or show their disgust toward those with a problem.
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Some people like to claim the moral high ground and hurl rocks, insults and condemnation at what they consider society’s losers. It imbues them with a sense of moral smugness. Campaign slogans like “Just say no,” reflect this arrogance.
Earlier this fall, Dr. Gabor Mate was a guest speaker at a Federation of Saskatchewan Indigenous Nations conference. He is a trauma specialist who has worked for more than a decade on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside with patients suffering from drug addiction and mental illness.
His conclusion is not to treat the addiction alone, but to address the pain. Addictions are caused by trauma, both childhood and adult. When people listened to his remarks, it became painfully clear what our people were going through. According to Dr. Mate, trauma is the real gateway drug.
The legacy of the boarding schools left a deeply wounded and troubled population. A young child taken from his or her home and isolated in a foreign environment subject to loneliness and violence, both institutional and lateral, should be expected to suffer trauma.
When the children grew into adulthood, their children were taken from them leaving a lonely home. The parents were made to feel they had no value, so without hope and family responsibilities they turned to alcohol. First It was home brew and bootleg booze and then they went to the liquor store.
Seeking solace in the bottle or a drug source is a form of self medication. It is seen as a temporary fix for depression. Today, the intergenerational trauma continues, and the self medication continues. The problem today is that drugs like meth and fentanyl are highly addictive and dangerous.
Today, addiction must be seen as a pathology. In other words, it’s a health issue and must be addressed as such. We have a treaty right to health care and governments, both federal and provincial, must step up and provide realistic programs and funding to address this issue.
This is a health issue, and it must be eradicated the same way that tuberculosis was seen as a health emergency. Since the churches brought this trauma upon us, they must step up and provide resources as well.
Drug and alcohol addiction is our 21st century plague. We are in danger of losing more people of all ages as more individuals become addicted and have lives of pain and suffering.
We have intergenerational trauma from the boarding schools and the ’60s Scoop. We have trauma from the high rate of death from drugs, alcohol, accidents and violence that affects every family. Trauma is the gateway drug, and it is the root of our addictions.
Doug Cuthand is the Indigenous affairs columnist for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and the Regina Leader-Post. He is a member of the Little Pine First Nation.
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