Sask. woman calls for more addictions supports after losing 2 family members to fentanyl
CBC
Laureen Pelletier-Wesaquate will sometimes think she has caught a glimpse of her son pedalling his bike in Regina and feels a surge of happiness. Then her stomach sinks and her heart breaks once again, as she realizes it was only her mind playing tricks.
Her son, Clinton Hotomanie Jr., died from a fentanyl overdose on Feb. 11, 2021.
"I think that's him, then I remember, he's gone."
Pelletier-Wesaquate's grief remains heavy. It's also complicated by further loss. As she was trying to process her son's death, she received a call from police. They said her oldest granddaughter Nikkia Sugar died on Feb. 15, 2021, just days before her 16th birthday — also from fentanyl.
"To find out they were gone, it was just really devastating," she said, speaking from her home at Piapot First Nation, Sask. "Losing children, especially to that terrible demon of fentanyl, is really hard."
Pelletier-Wesaquate is part of the growing group of Saskatchewan parents grieving because of fentanyl. At least 170 people died by accident from fentanyl and 135 from acetyl-fentany in 2021, according to the province's Coroners Service.
She never wants another parent to experience the pain she has gone through. She's leaned on prayer to work through this, but it's still hard for her not to become overwhelmed with raw emotion when she talks about it.
The hardest part is trying to console her late son's eight-year-old daughter, who she is raising.
"I feel so helpless when she cries for him," she said. "I tell her, her dad's gone to heaven. She says 'well, kokum how can I get to heaven? I want to go see my dad.'"
Pelletier said she knows dozens of people affected by fentanyl as the drug spreads further through the province.
"A lot of them are lost because of broken homes," she said, adding it seems to be people trying to cope with past hardship who are turning to drugs.
"No one who's an addict wants to be an addict. It's not a life that someone chooses," Elizabeth Plishka said. Plishka is the director of support services at Prairie Harm Reduction, which operates the province's first supervised consumption site for people living with addictions in Saskatoon.
Plishka said their clients living with addiction are often dealing with other complications like intergenerational trauma, poverty or homelessness.
"It's a response to trauma and they're trying to numb that."
