Pubdate: Wed, 03 Aug 2016
Source: North Shore News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 North Shore News
Contact:  http://www.nsnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/311

SAVING LIVES IS KEY

There are two major factors in the overdose epidemic that continues 
to ravage our province: fentanyl and shame. Fentanyl is exponentially 
more toxic than heroin. It's nearly impossible to detect in pills and 
powders. Still, it represents the simpler aspect of the problem.

Greater vigilance by our border guards and increased restrictions 
around those who can buy a pill press would likely help keep large 
quantities of fentanyl off the street.

The more lingering, complex problem is the issue of shame.

Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner - in a stern rebuke to both humanity and 
logic - recently resisted a safe-infection site being set up in her 
city. Her supporters seem to blame supervised injection sites for 
exacerbating drug addiction, all the while clucking their tongues at 
drug users for failing to heed Nancy Reagan's famous "Just say no" credo.

It's true safe injection sites don't work for everyone, but shallow 
aphorisms have likely never helped anyone struggling with addiction.

What injection sites do offer is a chance for a habitual drug user to 
get medical treatment. By denying them that chance, we're pretending 
both the problem and its solution don't exist.

Nurses and doctors at Lions Gate Hospital are currently supplying 
naloxone kits to anyone who fears they may be at risk of an overdose. 
We applaud their forward-thinking efforts. We just wish there were 
take-home kits for intolerance.

Naloxone, like safe-injection sites, will save lives. They provide a 
medical solution to a medical problem instead of wasting time on the 
moral blame game.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom