Pubdate: Sun, 16 Aug 2015
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Katherine Dedyna
Page: A3
Cited: http://www.mumsdu.com/

BESET BY LOSSES, MOTHERS PUSH FOR FENTANYL ANTIDOTE

A group of mothers who have lost adult children to drug addiction -
sometimes by taking just one fentanyl pill - are pushing past their
grief to mobilize changes in health policy they say could save many
other lives.

Moms United and Mandated to Saving the lives of Drug Users, or mumsDU,
kicked off a cross-Canada media campaign in Saanich last week,
breaking the silence they say surrounds addiction-related deaths, on
the rise due to the synthetic painkiller fentanyl, which is 50 to 100
times more potent than morphine.

The group says there is an urgent need to legislate easier access to
naloxone, the drug antidote to fentanyl and other opioids such as
morphine, heroin, methadone and oxycodone. Currently, a doctor's
prescription is required for the antidote, which can restore normal
breathing after opioids have impaired respiration.

Health Canada recently acknowledged that naloxone has been used safely
in Canadian hospitals for more than 40 years and plans to review
broader access, but that would take 18 months or more.

"This is a death sentence for hundreds of people if they take 18
months," said Leslie McBain of Pender Island.

McBain's son, Jordan Miller, was 25 when he died in Victoria last
year. He was found with many drugs in his system, but had been
addicted to oxycodone.

"The numbers are changing every day because people are dying," she
said. "[Naloxone] is our first defence against deadly overdose."

Fentanyl, used primarily to treat severe pain and available only by
prescription in Canada, is a growing concern as the number of deaths
and overdoses from the drug continue to climb.

There were at least 655 deaths in Canada involving fentanyl between
2009-2014, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse reports. There were
a further 1,019 drug-poisoning deaths in which fentanyl was detected
in post-mortem tests.

Anecdotal reports suggest that deaths and overdoses involving fentanyl
occur in individuals who thought they were using heroin, oxycodone,
cocaine or other drugs but mistakenly took fentanyl, according to the
Canadian Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use.

"When you're dealing with a street drug, you have no idea how it has
been made or what's in it," wrote Dr. Supriya Sharma and Dr. Gregory
Taylor, Canada's two top public health doctors, in a statement. The
officials warned that fentanyl is "many times more powerful than other
opioid drugs," meaning even small amounts can lead to death.

B.C. is chief among provinces pushing for broader access to naloxone,
with B.C. public health officials recommending the antidote be
available behind pharmacy counters without doctors' prescriptions,
said Laura Heinze, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health.

Since 2012, B.C. has distributed about 2,500 no-cost "take-home"
naloxone kits to people who use opioids, and more than 4,000 people
have been trained to administer naloxone, including users, their
friends and families and health service providers, she said.

More than 250 overdoses have been reversed as a result.

Fentanyl on the Island: 'We're seeing it more and more'

In the first five months of 2015, there were 12 deaths on Vancouver
Island in which fentanyl was found in the deceased, said Matt Brown of
the B.C. Coroners Service.

Those include seven deaths in Nanaimo, two in Victoria, two in
Campbell River, and one in Courtenay.

Accidental or undetermined deaths in illicit circumstances in which
fentanyl was detected have increased seven-fold in B.C. from 13 deaths
in 2012 to 90 deaths in 2014, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse
said.

There have been trafficking charges laid but no large-scale seizures
of fentanyl in Victoria, said Insp. Scott McGregor of the Victoria
Police Department's focused-enforcement team.

"We're seeing it more and more compared to two years ago," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt