FoM slams province’s addictions strategy as International Overdose Awareness Day is Sunday

By ANNA SMITH Local Journalism Initiative on August 30, 2025.

asmith@medicinehatnews.com

For Friends of Medicare, International Overdose Awareness Day takes an additional somber tone as they look at recent changes to recovery care.

“We recognize International Overdose Awareness Day this year knowing that every single day, more Albertans are dying from drug poisoning,” said executive director Chris Gallaway. “This is a heartbreaking crisis, made more so because every drug poisoning death represents a policy failure.

“When families and communities gather this weekend, they’ll have to mourn their losses knowing that each of these deaths would have been avoidable with proper access to community supports and harm reduction services.”

This year’s IOAD also marks one year since Recovery Alberta began operating, and FoM expressed concern and displeasure with how the “Alberta Recovery Model has been used to bolster a narrow system of private, for-profit treatment, with loose regulations and oversight.”

They also observe how this year, the date comes alongside the Edmonton region hitting an all-time monthly high for drug poisoning deaths, a tragedy still fresh for FoM.

“What the government is doing isn’t about expanding capacity for Albertans in need of support for substance or mental health issues, it’s about accelerating an ideological agenda of privatization through Recovery Alberta, and enabling the growth of the for-profit recovery industry,” said Gallaway. “All of the decisions being made about our health care need to be based on the best medical evidence, not politics. Four people die of drug poisoning in this province every day. Too much is at stake for this government to continue to ignore the full spectrum of care Albertans need during this crisis.”

To this end, FoM called for the end of work done to implement the compassionate care legislation, which would allow for those living with addiction to be put into treatment by others, including family members and law enforcement.

FoM says the province has not been hearing the concerns of advocates, health-care workers and experts who warn that a one-size-fits-all, abstinence-only approach will not be effective in getting many on the path to recovery, and may cause more harm than good.

“Addictions care is health care, full stop. Albertans need to know that their mental health and addictions services are being delivered as part of our public health care system, not contracted out to the lowest bidder seeking to profit off of Albertans who are struggling,” said Gallaway.

“We urgently need a change of course to ensure that these health care services are being publicly delivered, with proper regulatory oversight and with the full transparency and accountability that Albertans and their families deserve.”

12
-11