Pubdate: Thu, 12 Nov 2015
Source: Etobicoke Guardian (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Etobicoke Guardian
Contact:  http://www.insidetoronto.com/community/etobicoke
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2218

TALK ALONE WON'T SOLVE TORONTO'S DRUG PROBLEM

The war on drugs may be nearing an end, but the war of words on drugs
is just getting started.

At last week's Toronto Council meeting, a debate on banning hookahs in
Toronto business establishments couldn't go for long before
hand-wringing questions about the implications of legalized marijuana
would have on such a ban. Toronto's chief medical officer of health
Dr. David McKeown told councillors again and again that the
fulfillment of the Justin Trudeau government's promise to legalize the
drug wouldn't have much impact on this ban one way or another. But
that didn't stop the rhetoric.

It is an easy target for fear-mongering politicians, pot legalization.
What terrible things might happen when Toronto residents are granted
easier, consequence-free access to the long-unlawful, debatably
unhealthy drug?

Here's the thing: Torontonians are already ingesting substances
illegal and legal that cause different degrees of harm. And Toronto
has been dealing with that reality for a decade now, through the
Toronto Drug Strategy.

On Monday, Dr. McKeown provided an update on the city's attempts to
deal with the problems that arise from addiction, experimentation and
overdose in the city.

Overdose right now is the big problem faced by public health
officials. Over the past 10 years, death by drug overdose has
increased by 41 per cent, and is now the second biggest cause of death
for young people. (Vehicle collisions remain the first.)

The culprit in the overdose spike is a resurgence in popularity for
opiates like heroin - highly addictive and so difficult to discourage
with the threat of arrest and long jail sentences.

There is no easy way to deal with this, and the Drug Strategy's
implementation board has come up with a partial solution: POINT, a
Toronto Public Health program to prevent overdoses in Toronto. POINT
distributes a kit for delivering Naxoline, a drug that can reverse the
fatal effects of an overdose if administered immediately. So far,
2,000 kits have been distributed, and the drug has been used 300 times.

More lives might be saved if the province and federal government
passed a Good Samaritan law so that people present at an overdose can
call 911 without fear of arrest themselves. That won't solve things
either, but that is the reality: when it comes to drug use and abuse,
there's no solution, just mitigation. And no amount of talk will
change that.
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MAP posted-by: Matt