How can the East Coast cope with the cross-country march of opioids?

As a teenager in foster care in northern Ontario,Mandy Richard began snortingPercocetsandOxyContin before turningto almost anything she could get her hands on, includinghydromorphoneandTylenol 3.

The relief the highs brought her weremore potent than the fear of an overdose.

"Then you're looking for your next fix, and you're aching for it and you're anxious for it. You need it," she said.

Richard left her addiction in Ontario to start a new life in Frederictonwhen she realized her education was at stake.

"I was a role model. I was student council president," she told CBC.

She is currently finishing her last year atSt. Thomas University a world away from her home reserve in northern Ontario.

A report released this week by the federal government says opioids are killing an average of eight Canadians every day, and the scourge, as forewarned, is now moving east into Atlantic Canada.

Yet despite what's been learned in B.C., where the province declared a public health emergency almost a year and a half ago, New Brunswickis finding itself unprepared for what is landing on its doorstep. It is, for example, one of the few provinces that still doesn't offer free naloxone kitsthe potentially lifesaving opioid overdose antidotein pharmacies.

The province's chief medical officer of health admits things could get worse before they get better.

In the Maritimes, the number of publicly funded prescriptions for opioids increased by 26 per cent between 2010 and 2015, according to data compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. The figures show the increase in New Brunswick was 28 per cent over that period.

But New Brunswick doesn't have the same prescription monitoring program that Nova Scotia has and some front-line workers worry that once prescription pills aren't readily available, illicit fentanyl will gain a bigger foothold.

Dr. Jennifer Russell, New Brunswick's acting chief medical officer of health,told CBC the province's response plan will be made public in the coming weeks and the provinceis planninga summit on the issue in November.

"I think it's probably going to get worse before it gets better. I think ramping up all of the things that we need to do to deal with the situation as it evolvesis really important," said Russell.

Premier Brian Gallant and New Brunswick'snew health minister, Benot Bourque, weren't available for an interview.

Churches fundraising for naloxone

Julie Dingwell, executive director of AIDS Saint John, saidshe has seen evidence that people have been using fentanyl in the province for some time now.

"We've even had people using crack say, 'I used crack and then I slept for a day.' ... You would never normally sleep on crack," Dingwell said. "I think we're in the middle of the mess, but I don't see an end in sight at the rate we're going."

What wouldhelp, said Dingwell, is having naloxone kits readily available, but the kits are not easy to come by in the province.

"Our government has initiated a fentanyl overdose committee as a response to things, but a committee is not getting naloxone in the hands of the people who need naloxone," she said.

By approaching community groups and churches, her agencyhas raised enough money to buy about 45 of the $45 kits.

AIDS Saint John estimates that of the 328 overdose deaths in New Brunswick between 2005 and 2015, more than 60 per cent involved opioids.Deaths, she said,that may have been prevented with naloxone.

"Oh, we would need hundreds [of kits]. We would need hundreds," she said.

Nova Scotia case

TheCanadian Institute for Health Informationreport shows that New Brunswick already has a higher rate of opioid poisoning hospitalizations than its neighbour Nova Scotia.

And that province is already implementing its ownplan to deal with the crisis.

Anyone who wants a kit of injectable naloxone can get one at no cost at their local pharmacy

Dr. Robert Strang, Nova Scotia's chief medical officer, said the province is considering what to do next, including a push to decriminalize heroin and cocaine.

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"Initiatives like naloxone and supervised injection sites are necessary, but they really are a Band-Aid," he said.

"Unless we're comfortable with letting large numbers of people, who are often marginalized, impoverished or in addiction for a whole bunch of reasons, unless we're prepared to essentially write those people off, we need to have this conversation [about decriminalization]."

In an interview with CBC Radio's The House, federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor quickly shut down that possibility.

"The issue of decriminalizing drugs is not something that we're looking at. What my priorities are as health minister is right now, first and foremost, is reducing barriers to treatment for many people that are using substances that are harmful to them," she said.

Petitpas Taylor said her department is looking into making substitution therapies, like methadone, more easily available.