Advocates call for understanding, awareness as overdoses continue to rise

A storage room at the Mokami Status of Women Council is filled with shampoo, deodorants, pads, and at the back a small section of snorting kits, clean injection supplies and naloxone kits. 

The non-profit is working to help women and gender-diverse people in Labrador has seen an increase in people requesting anonymous hygiene and safe supplies as the province reached a new record of overdose deaths in 2024. 

“It’s needed,” explains Rebecca Larkham, Mokami’s women’s centre coordinator. “People are using, regardless of what is available. So why not decrease sharing of supplies and needles?”

There are 75 confirmed drug toxicity deaths in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2024, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. It’s an increase from 74 deaths in 2023, and 41 deaths five years ago in 2019. 

There are still pending cases that are open for 2024, but numbers show deaths in the eastern done have doubled from 25 in 2019 to 58 in 2024, while the Labrador-Grenfell region had fewer than five deaths a year before 2022, and has had 17 people die by drug toxicity since 2022. 

For two years, Mokami has partnered with the Safe Works Access Program in St. John’s to provide safe supplies to those who have been struggling with addictions. Mokami’s staff has seen an increase of people accessing the anonymous, non-judgemental pick-up space, available 24 hours a day, Larkham said. 

Last summer, about 150 people a month came to Mokami’s staff for hygiene supplies. Now they are seeing more than 200 people a month in need of hygiene help and 40-50 people a month for safe-use supplies, with some people returning multiple times a month, she says. 

“In a dream world, we wouldn’t be here, but this is the reality of Goose Bay right now. And, I mean, we’ve seen it in 2025 the drugs are on an increase, and the more supports we can get in community, it’s really the better.” 

The naloxone kits have been the most important supplies, with free training available for anyone needing it, she says. 

Less stigma, more education key to stopping deaths 

In Labrador West, Keith Fitzpatrick has been handing out naloxone kits from his home. The former drug user is now an advocate for people with addictions and mental health challenges. To stop people from dying, Fitzpatrick says there needs to be less stigma around addictions, better education for youth, and more naloxone training in the province. 

Over the past year, Fitzpatrick has seen friends from his recovery journey laid to rest and worries the numbers are under-reported as the stigma surrounding mental health and addictions continue throughout the province. 

“They’re not looking at the person suffering from addictions who happens to be a doctor, or a teacher, or your next door neighbor who drinks a bottle of wine every day,” Fitzpatrick says. “The stigma is still buried very deeply when it comes to addiction.”

There isn’t enough understanding about the root causes of addiction and trauma many people face, Fitzpatrick says. Instead, people are faced with dirty looks and a lack of understanding if they try to seek help, he explains. 

Too often drug use is considered a St. John’s problem, Toronto problem, or Montreal problem, when addictions and drug use are widespread in Labrador, Fitzpatrick adds. 

The additives in drugs these days complicate things, making them more deadly, Fitzpatrick explains. For example, cocaine has a number of additives, and “everything that’s added to that is putting you at risk of dying.” 

In 2024, 37 people died from drug toxicity directly linked to cocaine, and 18 deaths were connected to fentanyl, with seven connected to a combination of fentanyl and cocaine. 

In 2023, 34 deaths were linked to cocaine alone, eight deaths were confirmed by fentanyl or fentanyl analogues, and seven were connected to a combination of cocaine and fentanyl. 

Five years ago, 14 deaths were connected to cocaine, three linked to fentanyl and one linked to both cocaine and fentanyl. “We don’t need people dying from a disease, plain and simple. We wouldn’t let cancer patients die. We don’t let people suffer heart attacks without trying to treat them, but why are we letting people suffering addictions, which is a medical concern, die?”

If there is going to be real, long-lasting change that would purge the need for safe supplies, Fitzpatrick says youth need to be properly educated about the risks of drugs, addictions and the effects of trauma. “The DARE program in schools is a waste,” Fitzpatrick says. “‘Drugs are bad.’ Yeah, I knew that — didn’t stop me. You need to start from an early age and have people with lived experience start talking about that experience.” 

The talks need to be age-appropriate, but could truly show the effects of drug use and the long-term challenges people face when battling addictions, Fitzpatrick says. The province could also benefit from media campaigns about the dangers of the current drug supply, and more understanding in healthcare settings that rehabilitation is a life-long journey, not something people can go to rehab for once and be “cured,” he adds. 

If the stigma was decreased in healthcare settings, and young people were properly educated, and naloxone training freely available, Fitzpatrick believes the effects would ripple into the future. “The long-term goal, for me, is less people dead at the end of the day. That’s what it is.

“The drugs are just that dangerous now, and we’ve got enough problems in Labrador with mental health issues without adding people dying from overdoses. We can’t afford to keep losing people.” 

N.L. Health Services has free naloxone kits at a number of sites throughout the province, including healthcare facilities and community clinics.