Pubdate: Sun, 20 Nov 2016
Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB)
Copyright: 2016 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.winnipegsun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.winnipegsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503
Author: Jim Bender
Page: 3

'UNDERWHELMING'

Opioid conference misses point, advocate says

A policy to address the latest opioids crisis at a Health Canada
conference in Ottawa does not go far enough, or fast enough, to
prevent future deaths, an advocate says.

Cynthia Genaille, whose daughter Brittany died of a fentanyl overdose
on Oct. 6, speaks to media during a small rally denouncing the opioid
in front of the Legislative Building.

"Where's the urgency?" Richard Elliott, the executive director for the
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, asked. "You need to stop people from
dying now."

People from all across Canada are dying as the result of taking such
opioids as fentanyl or carfentanil.

Canadian Health Minister Jane Philpott conducted a two-day conference
of health ministers, including Manitoba's Kelvin Goertzen, to come up
with a plan to discuss the issue of deaths associated to opioids like
fentanyl and carfentanil. That plan includes better collection of data
about drug overdoses, greater free distribution of nalaxone, the
antidote to such drugs as fentanyl, improved addiction services,
better monitoring of legal prescriptions and changing the Respect for
Communities Act, which would allow more provinces to offer safe
injection sites. It will also increase border security to stem the
flow of illegal fentanyl from China.

"It's pretty underwhelming," said Elliott, who attended the
conference. "There are some things that are fairly innocuous, like
collecting better data, which is fine."

Expanding the distribution of free naxolone is a good move but
monitoring legal prescriptions for opioids isn't, Elliott said.

"Clamping down on the prescriptions for opioids does little to respond
to overdoses and death," he said. "It's the wrong response because it
keeps them from getting legally obtained drugs.

"When they clamped down on prescriptions for Oxycontin, it led to this
crisis with fentanyl. So, they're missing the point."

Elliott called for the immediate repeal of the Respect for Communities
Act so that provinces across the country could start safe injection
sites to save lives. B.C. currently has the only one in Canada.

"Just go out and do it without waiting for an exemption from the local
(Health) Minister. It would stop people from dying," Elliott said.
"Maybe we need to stop criminalizing these people because that stops
them from getting the help they need. Programs can't help them if
they're already dead.

"But there has been no commitment to them from other provincial
governments."

Health Canada will also issue new prescription guidelines to doctors
to increase access to suboxone, a substitute painkiller, in First
Nation communities come January.

"There is no single solution to this devastating problem," Philpott
said in a release.
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