Pubdate: Sat, 02 May 2015
Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 The London Free Press
Contact: http://www.lfpress.com/letters
Website: http://www.lfpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/243
Author: Jennifer O'Brien
Page: A1
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?241 (Methamphetamine - Canada)

A METH MESS

Emergencies Soar As the Drug's Use Here Becomes Rampant

Drug overdose calls to 911 in London are skyrocketing, with 
paramedics responding to more than three times the calls they fielded 
only two years ago, The Free Press has learned. Since January this 
year, paramedics have dealt with 251 drug overdoses - that's an 
average of more than two a day, and more than triple the number of 
calls during the same period in 2013. "Saddened" by the dramatic 
spike, the region's medical officer of health says the numbers prove 
London agencies need to start working differently and together to 
support addicts.

"Drug use is a symptom. It's not the cause here," Dr. Chris Mackie 
said. "The cause is we have people who have no hope, no jobs and no 
opportunities."

The Free Press obtained the grim statistics on overdose calls a day 
after city police said they'd singled out the street drug crystal 
methamphetamine for the first time in a major undercover investigation.

Police say crystal meth - the drug that runs through the TV series 
Breaking Bad - is becoming rampant in London and wreaking havoc with 
addicts. While Middlesex-London EMS officials don't break down 
overdose calls by type of drug, outreach workers say the steady 
increase in overdose calls reflects the surge in crystal meth use.

"It makes sense. Crystal meth is a stimulant - your heart's racing 
and blood pressure is up and that can cause stroke or heart attack," 
said Sonja Burke of the Regional HIV/AIDS Connection. "People could 
be calling and saying they're in overdose out of pure panic," said 
Burke, whose agency runs a safe injection centre.

"We've been hearing about it. In the last year or two, we've had a 
lot more conversation around crystal meth," said Grant Martin of 
London CARES. "It is coming up at community (meetings) and folks from 
the London Health Sciences Centre are seeing it." "There seems to be 
a steady incline over the past year or two in crystal meth 
(reactions), and the reporting of extreme reactions to it have been 
discussed for the past six months." he said.

Mackie said the surge in overdose calls should be a public eyeopener.

"This is the sort of thing people need to be paying attention to. 
It's not anything one agency can solve," he said, calling for a more 
co-ordinated approach.

"There's a lot of good things happening, but we need to do them in a 
way that's more effective and targeted and collaborative." "We need 
to make sure our not-for-profits are co-ordinated better," Mackie 
said. Crystal meth gained a London foothold after Oxycontin opiod 
pills were taken off the market in 2012, outreach workers say. Back 
then, studies showed London had Ontario's highest per-capita opioid use.

With Oxy no longer easily available, addicts turned to cheaper, 
easy-to-get crystal meth, observers say.

A completely different drug, crystal meth is a stimulant that alters 
the brain's neurotransmitters, causing euphoric feeling. It also 
packs serious side effects, including anxiety, paranoia and seizures. 
The spike in overdose 911 calls comes less than a year after several 
agencies rolled out a program to stop deaths from opioid overdoses, 
distributing dozens of kits containing the drug Naloxone. It can be 
used to instantly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, but 
doesn't work on stimulant drugs. "I'm saddened, because we already 
had a problem here and it's getting worse and worse every year," said 
Mackie. "I'd like to see greater uptake of the Naloxone program. It's 
part of a solution."

Three years ago, 41 people died of drug overdoses in London, double 
the average Ontario death rate. The next year that number fell to 30.

Martin said crystal meth users are at a higher risk than other 
stimulant users because of the different substances and chemicals 
sometimes used to cut the drug. "Folks who have been 
substance-involved for some time tend to learn their tolerance and 
what they can handle," he said. "They manage it so they don't OD. If 
it is cut with something else, it can lead to adverse reactions and 
lead to an overdose."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom