Sackville drugstore giving out tools to make injection drug use safer

As a pharmacy assistant at the Guardian drugstore in a small town, Ashley Legere gets to know her clients fairly well.

Through those relationships, she discovered there was a need for services like free needles and other tools to make drug use safer.

"I see people coming in and purchasing one millilitre insulin syringes and not coming back for a couple of weeks, and so you know that those syringes may be used multiple times," said Legere.

Having worked in pharmacies in the Maritimes for about eight years, Legere learned early on in her career that drug addiction wasn't just a big city problem. 

One of her duties is making the methadone that is dispersed to patients as part of their addiction treatment.

"That's when I realized it was just everywhere," said Legere.

"It wasn't just Halifax and it wasn't just Amherst and it wasn't just Moncton, it was everywhere." 

Concerned about the possible spread of diseases like endocarditis, hepatitis and HIV, Legere called Debby Warren, executive director at Ensemble Services in Greater Moncton, to see what her options were.

Warren packed up a box of tourniquets, syringes, alcohol wipes, fentanyl test strips, cotton swabs and cookers: a replacement for aluminum cans that can release harmful fumes when heated. 

"By taking the service to them, it's making it much easier," said Warren.

Of the 900 people who use Ensemble's services in the course of a year, Warren said some are from Sackville and other surrounding communities. But many others don't have the means to travel that far even though they have the same need for clean tools to use drugs.

130 care packages, 1000 clean needles

Armed with her box full of what she calls 'care packages' enclosed in a plain brown paper bag, Legere waited until someone came in to buy syringes.

"I just said, 'Could I give you something for free?' And he said, 'Yes, it's OK'," she said.

Legere didn't advertise the service, but let it spread by word of mouth.

"Generally drug use is not done by yourself," said Leger.

"So I knew that that person would have other people that they would know that were also intravenous drug users."

In six weeks, Legere has given out 130 care packages to customers, including 1000 clean needles.    

Learning curve

As a pharmacy assistant Legere knows how to prepare methadone and other opioid treatments, but she has no experience with cooking drugs or how crack cocaine is smoked. 

"I had one of our patients call and say, 'Can I just offer you a suggestion on what to put in the bag? Because when you passed me the vitamin C, I expected also to be a crack pipe', because that's what they use to break down the crack with," said Legere.

"I had no idea, so I I took her advice and wrote it all down."

She had to redo all the care packages to put tools that go together in the same bags, Legere said with a laugh.

'So your mom's not in the pharmacy when you're there'

Legere said her customers come from the small town and other surrounding communities in southwestern Westmorland County. Some even come from Amherst, Nova Scotia.

Legere assumes they travel from Amherst for privacy, "so your mom's not in the pharmacy when you're there."

She hopes word spreads and anyone who needs the free service uses it.

"The more harm reduction initiatives that are around, the safer everyone is, the safer the community is, the safer your kids are, the safer these marginalized people (are)," said Legere