Health Committee on Feb. 11th, 2014

[Carol Hopkins]

That's right.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

I would like to understand this. Is there an analysis that connects employment levels in a community with susceptibility to prescription drug abuse and other addictive practices? To what degree is it also associated with loss of traditional employment and the failure to have a connection with the 21st-century economy in some of the remote communities?

[Carol Hopkins]

That's a big question.

[Peter Dinsdale]

I'm not aware of any specific study, but let me say that I think we've seen a spike in this kind of usage in the last historical while, and each generation is born into a baseline of a norm. If a child born today understands that community, what's happening today is the norm. For a child born 20 years ago, that is the baseline, the norm for that child as it grows up. So to say that from one generation to another the loss of those jobs, which may not have existed in those communities, has resulted in increased drug use.... I don't think there would necessarily be a correlation there. It's the broader disenfranchisement we're seeing—

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Okay. I'm thinking about British Columbia, where some communities are partnering with the local mine or have a community-based forestry business. Some communities have been able to reduce their unemployment from 85%, which it was even 10 years ago, to a much healthier level. That's why I'm wondering. In communities that have been able to connect with the economy of today, potentially through their resources and their traditional territories, is that changing the profile of prescription drug abuse?

[Peter Dinsdale]

I think we've seen spikes in substance abuse when new waves of wealth have come into a community and have introduced drugs and all kinds of abuse. It's not so much when it leaves, when people are dealing with the loss; it's more the advancement of new money, with all the challenges it creates, that then creates usage. That has been our experience.

[Joyce Murray, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

So it's more correlated with money, with wealth, than it is with employment or lack of employment.

[Peter Dinsdale]

Yes. It's because there's a change in the baseline. You had nothing before, and now there's all this new stuff in there.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ben Lobb]

Thank you, Ms. Murray.

We're really at the end of our meeting here today, but if the committee doesn't mind, I have one quick question and one request.

My quick question is this. Other communities across Canada have had “take back the prescription drug” days, and I'm just curious if on reserve in your communities you've had that kind of day or if you know of any communities that have.

[Peter Dinsdale]

I haven't heard of it myself, but I can certainly go back and find out and let the committee know.

[Carol Hopkins]

I know that was something we supported in First Do No Harm, Canada's national strategy. We certainly were part of those discussions that promoted that initiative, but I'm not aware of any specific examples.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ben Lobb]

Okay.

My request is related to the traditional methods of healing, specifically dealing with coping with pain or pain management. If there are any specific examples where person X, suffering from some injury, became addicted to whatever, and working through western plus traditional medicines saw a marked improvement, or if you have an area or case study that has worked very well, perhaps you could forward those examples to the committee. I think it would be very helpful to include them in our report.

With that, I appreciate the committee's latitude in letting me have a question.

We appreciate you folks taking the time to be here today. Thank you.

Our next meeting is on Thursday, if I'm not mistaken.

With that, the meeting is adjourned.