VICE News produces Steel Town Down to Sault Ste. In Marie, Ontario, the decline of the once-thriving steel industry has led to widespread despair, limited economic opportunity and a raging opioid epidemic.
Victor Gareau is still working at the steel mill. He is one of the lucky few. The industry once employed more than 13,000 locals, but modernization and cost-cutting efforts have wiped out much of the workforce. His 19-year-old son Josh was addicted. He continued to use drugs despite the fact that he personally knew many people like him who died from the stress of addiction.
Josh is not an anomaly. With more than 4,000 overdose deaths reported in Canada last year alone, the opioid crisis has hit the small town especially hard. Poverty is an important factor, but limited resources for treatment also contribute significantly to the epidemic. The local hospital employed only one addiction specialist, and it was not uncommon for her to treat eight overdose cases in one night.
The most popular drugs, such as fentanyl, are synthetic. Users rarely knew exactly what they were injecting into their bodies, and the mysterious concoction often proved deadly.
Pandemics like this go a long way in shaping the character of communities, and vice versa. You can feel it in the empty shops, closed houses and the desperation etched on the faces of residents.
“This town is full of drugs,” admits one addict. The opioid crisis has figured prominently in the lives of even those who don’t abuse the substance. The filmmakers interview worried parents struggling to keep their children alive, medical professionals confronting a steady stream of senseless drug-related deaths, recovery counselors struggling to motivate them trying to escape the clutches of addiction, and… …. frequent overdose calls have become the order of the day.
Sioux St. Mary is a symbol of many cities in North America and beyond. Steel Town Down captures the trauma of all aspects of the problem and accurately portrays addiction as a devastating disease that requires patience, empathy, and adequate resources to overcome.
