AFN calling for First Nations-specific opioid strategy – Regina Leader-Post

July 27, 2017

With addictions rates to opioids in First Nations communities above the national average, Isadore Day, chiefs committee chair on health at the Assembly of First Nations, is calling on the federal government to consider a First Nations-specific opioid strategy.

The federal government has been working on addressing Canada’s opioid crisis over the past year, but Day says Indigenous peoples have not had a big enough role in the discussion.

“I stood firm in that the national opioid strategy shouldn’t go ahead without effective and meaningful engagement of our First Nation across the countries. So thats what we’re doing here,” Day said Thursday at the AFN annual general assembly.

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