'Our communities are in grief': Sask. First Nations battle ongoing opioid crisis

Jeromy Desjarlais's home on the Muskowekwan First Nation has become the spot people in the community go when they need a naloxone kit.

The kits, which contain two doses of naloxone, two nasal misters and directions on appropriate use, are used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

Desjarlais said the health centre in his community, about 145 kilometres north of Regina, has the kits at its public building, but the hours it is open are limited.

"Anybody should be able to just go there, take it and then have it," he said. 

So Desjarlais opened a small store, in his home, with snacks for sale and free kits with the life-saving drug. He said he's already had people coming into his store asking for the kits.

He said people in his community need a place to go to get help without being judged. 

Part of his motivation lies in grief. Desjarlais said he has lost many family members and friends to fatal drug overdoses. 

"It's pretty scary to see that happening in our community," he said. "It's going after every generation." 

Desjarlais said when he was growing up, there was a lot of underage drinking. Now, he sees that the problematic substance use has escalated to kids doing hard drugs.

He said it is a crisis that is reaching into his generation as well. He said many of the people he grew up with use opioids and "look lost."   

"There's really nothing you can do," he said. "You try to help them and they don't want help." 

Desjarlais said they don't understand the damage they are doing to themselves or to their families.

He said the effects of intergenerational trauma are still being felt in his community. Many people he knows, including himself and his parents, attended residential school there. The former Muscowequan Indian Residential School, located on Muskowekwan First Nation, closed its doors in 1997. 

"A lot of that trauma comes from the residential school that's on Muskowekwan," Desjarlais said.