Multiple agencies, including NITHA, had information tables at the U of S campus on Aug. 28. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Overdose Awareness

Agencies promote safety in Overdose Awareness Day event

Aug 28, 2025 | 5:03 PM

Multiple local agencies gathered in front of the University of Saskatchewan’s Prince Albert campus on Thursday afternoon to promote and educate people about the impacts of addictions.

Anthony de Padua, the HIV Coordinator for NITHA (Northern Intertribal Health Authority) is also part of the organizing committee for the event talked about why they felt it was important.

“What we’re trying to do is provide awareness for the community members here in Prince Albert about overdose awareness and also to be able to support people in the community and are trying to deal with their own addictions as well,” he said.

Along with speakers telling their own stories of how they were motivated to get their addiction under control, there were tables handing out test strips for users who want to make sure their drugs don’t contain fentanyl, the leading trigger for overdoses.

While the number of fatal overdoses has dropped from a peak of 456 in 2022, there are still hundreds of people dying every year.

Riderville

Now for the Hard Part

Dec 10, 2025

Seniors Scene

Christmas is Coming

Dec 09, 2025

Grey Cup!!!

Everything you wanted and more

Nov 21, 2025

In 2024, 342 people died from overdosing, with 277 of those accidental and 15 being deliberate.

Between January 1 and July 31, 2025, there have been 210 confirmed/suspected fatal overdoses in the province.

“It is a bit lower than in 2023, but what we do see is that it sill continues to be a problem and something that really needs to be addressed within the community,” de Padua said.

Drug use leads to other issues, such as sharing contaminated things like meth pipes or having sex without a condom, which has in turn contributed to the western provinces having the highest rates of blood borne diseases, such as HIV.

This machine can test street drugs for harmful additives like fentanyl but can only be used at Access Place. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

Jordan Merasty is an educator for the Prince Albert Métis Women’s Association, that helps others learn about Sexually Transmitted Blood-Borne Infections (STBI) and speaks from his personal experience.

“I was 16 when I first contracted HIV and I’m 30 years old now, so I’ve been living with it for quite a while,” he said.

When he first learned he was HIV positive, he was in shock for a while and struggled with his own self-image and how others reacted to his status.

“It made me feel self-conscience about myself being out there with HIV because I was still quite young, so quite new to it.”

As he learned about his own condition, he also had to teach people close to him about it because they were shunning him out of fear.

HIV cannot be transmitted through casual contact such as hugging. It can be transmitted through blood and exchanging bodily fluids, however, which is why using condoms and not sharing needles and pipes is so important.

People who smoke meth frequently have cracked lips that can bleed on the pipe and then transmit to the next user.

Merasty pointed out that medical science has improved and treatment now makes it more of a chronic condition than a death sentence like it used to be.

There is also the mental health aspect that he teaches when he works with people.

“When they’re first diagnosed, it hits them hard and they fall into depression. The pills we take for treatments, some of the side effects are depression. So I help them cope with that as well,” he said.

According to Health Canada numbers from 2022, Saskatchewan far out strips other provinces and territories when it comes to new HIV cases.

The national rate per 100,000 people was 4.7 in 2022. In Saskatchewan, that number was 19, around a 400 per cent difference. The next highest province is Manitoba at 13.9 and the remaining provinces/territories are all below five.

—

susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com