North -east of Edmonton, residents Kehewin First Nation Rally to save their community from dependence.
After visiting too much funeral for young people, they take measures to fight Drugs And alcohol.
“There is a real pandemic,” said Kokum Kathleen Dion.
“We just lose too many young lives. One by one. “
The 53-year-old knows that the pain is personally. Her son Bradley Witstone fought with addiction for many years.
“His first time he tried (crystal) methamphetamine, he held us for three days. He was just young, was he? 17? ” She remembered.
Dion believes that her son spiral after the death of her father in 2022.
“This is such a cheap, dirty drug, and it is so accessible. They all go to this, ”explained Dione's partner Nick Degl.
They say that Bradley would tell his family that he did not use, but they knew otherwise.
“Dark circles around his eyes, his face was swelling. This is not him. I could say that something is wrong. I knew that he was sick, but he was such a stubborn child, ”said Dion.
“You cannot force someone to quit what they are addicted to. It should be their choice. Regardless of how much I pressed on my son, it was all the same. ”
The abuse of psychoactive substances broke his young body.
“Metam damaged his liver and kidneys so bad that the doctors told him that he should be on dialysis,” said Degl.
“You make you aggressive, evil, hated – it’s crazy what this drug is doing with you.”
In May, after a decade of abuse of drugs, the 26-year-old died, leaving behind a four-year-old daughter.
“I would like to change that day, but I can’t,” said Dion through tears.
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“It is always to the night, she cries about her father.”
The medical expert recently confirmed that the mother already knew in her heart – her son died of an overdose of methamphetamine.
“This drug is the devil … I just hate him. That's all I can say, I hate him. “
Dion is currently one of several residents of Kehewin Cre Nation, now calling for changes. There are 1400 members here.
“We must stop the normalization of alcoholism and drugs. Usage. This has been overlooked for so long, ”explained the mother of four Mount Brittani.
“When the children are on the street, this is my own concern, because we have people who are known to drug addicts who just walk around the yard, drunk people walk along the way, and they sometimes shouted at children and garbage in our yard.”
She rallied other mothers and neighbors, taking measures.
“We hear people constantly talking about the desire to make changes to the reserve, and no one does anything about it. They complain a lot about this, but they never had a solution, ”she said.
“Our elders and our children deserve to have a safe place to enjoy.”
She contacted the group adviser Tyler Yangachif, who recently ran in his place on a platform for the fight against drug use in Kevin.
This is an area to which he is especially passionate after the death of his niece Riley Yang at the age of 35. Tyler says that she was killed as a result of an attack caused by psychoactive substances.
Having talked with RCMP that they need to make arrests, he made a blow to the development of drugs prohibiting the charter in Keverin.
The adviser shared this with Mountain and her new committee on illegal drugs and alcohol.
“I pushed them and told them that I would support them. I tried to do something. Therefore, it is pleasant to see that this comes from the people of the nation, ”Yangif said.
The correction version of his charter was agreed on the principle by the leader and the Council.
“The charter mainly claims that we are a dry reserve. There is no medicine or alcohol in the reserve, ”said Mountin.
It also sets out serious consequences for the sale or abuse of drugs or alcohol, deprives the inhabitants of housing privileges, public services and other resources.
“If you are dealing with drug dealers, you will not be able to save your house,” Yanghef said.
“This is not to punish them. This should give them an impetus to break out of this, change and look at the harm they cause for our own group. ”
Youngchief hopes that the charter will make drugs and alcohol less accessible in Kehewin, located about 25 kilometers south of Bonnilil.
“Regardless of what drugs or addiction, there will always be some way to supply it. This is just an unsuccessful end of addiction. But if you can limit interaction in your community, then you can help people overcome it. ”
Brittani Wright is another member of the committee. She talked with Global News after visiting the funeral of another young man.
Her motivation was simple: “We are tired of seeing our people causing pain and all the losses that we worry,” she said. “We are now taking it seriously.”
“We want to protect our future generations, our youth, our children, our elders.”
She said that their group was ready to give an example and hack the worst criminals.
“We have a list compiled from all names. Therefore, as soon as the team of legal reviews finished considering this charter, we will take some actions in it. ”
With an ongoing process, it is unclear when the charter accurately enters into force.
But for Dion and other mourning mothers this cannot happen soon. They do not want other families to withstand what is already there.
“I just with sometimes I could return (my son) for a moment and tell him how much I loved him.”
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