Drug Addiction in Saskatchewan

There are about nine hundred and ninety thousand people who live in Saskatchewan. At any given time there are thirty seven thousand people in this prairie province that are in need of some sort of treatment from drug addiction problems. This number doesn’t even include those that are addicted to prescription drugs!

Last year one hundred and twenty seven suicide attempts were linked back to drug and alcohol use / addiction, say the Saskatchewan RCMP. Usually people drank significant amounts of alcohol before attempting the suicide. The more they drank, the more lethal the attempt was. About one hundred and fifty eight people commit suicide each year in Saskatchewan. People are also attempting suicide at increasingly younger ages, largely due to the numbers of youth that are trying drugs younger and younger.

The younger a person starts drinking, and binging on alcohol, the more likely they become a heavy drinker at a young age. This increases the risk of suicide significantly, and Saskatchewan is looking into what they can do to stop the growing trend of youth drinking and committing suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teens.

After alcohol, cocaine is the next highest risk factor contributing toward suicide in adults and in teens.  Doctors in Saskatchewan are studying the numbers hoping that they can find a pattern to be better able to predict who will attempt a suicide.

Meth growers from Alberta are trying to make inroads into next door Saskatchewan with little luck, even an undercover police officer has reported that while trying to buy meth, the dealer was talking her out of it, and into buying “healthier” cocaine instead.  There has only ever been one meth lab originating in Saskatchewan and it was a smaller one. Almost all the meth that is found in Saskatchewan can be traced back to Alberta, people smuggle it across the provincial border, usually in their cars.

^{References: http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Expert+testifies+about+Saskatchewan+crystal+meth+trade/3984448/story.html
http://canadiandrugrehab.ca/saskatchewan-drug-rehab.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18478827
http://www.wrha.mb.ca/community/mentalhealth/files/SuicideMortalityReview.pdf
http://www.bookrags.com/research/suicide-and-substance-abuse-dat-03/}