Pubdate: Fri, 03 Feb 2017
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2017 Postmedia Network
Contact:  http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Annalise Klingbeil
Page: A3

MAYOR URGES NEW IDEAS TO TACKLE OPIOID DEATHS

Calgary could be a 'test bed,' he suggests to federal health
minister

Amid a growing opioid crisis, Mayor Naheed Nenshi has spoken to
Canada's health minister about using Calgary as a "test bed for new
treatment modalities," which could include safe consumption sites for
drug users.

When he met with federal Health Minister Jane Philpott in Calgary last
month, Nenshi offered the city as a place to test new ways of treating
fentanyl and other powerful and often deadly opioids ravaging lives
across the country.

"We've got a crisis ... People are dying and we have to figure out
ways of helping them and, certainly, the current system has not proven
itself adequate toward dealing with this crisis," Nenshi said Thursday.

"I'm looking for innovation, I'm looking for evidence and I'm willing
to experiment and (do) pilot projects here in Calgary to try to find
things that work. The situation is desperate and we have to do
something about it."

Nenshi spoke of the test bed idea at a committee meeting Thursday
morning, in which he told councillors if there's any appetite from
Ottawa to move forward, important decisions will loom.

"If the federal government is willing to do that, then this council
will have a number of very tough decisions ahead of us very, very
quickly," Nenshi said at the meeting.

Nenshi later told reporters that as two or three Calgarians die from
overdoses every week, new solutions are needed immediately and he
believes Philpott is aware of that.

"I certainly got the sense from the federal health minister that she,
too, was willing to try new things, to try things that haven't been
done before in Canada and to do it quickly.

"And I said, trying new things, gathering evidence, doing pilot
projects and being innovative and moving quickly, well, that describes
Calgary," the mayor said.

"We need to see, certainly, new treatment modalities. We need to have
a very serious conversation about what works and what doesn't work in
harm reduction, including safe consumption sites," he continued.

Nenshi said he doesn't yet know if the province is on board with the
idea of trying new treatments in Calgary, but he said Alberta has long
been seen as a place for innovation in health care.

On Wednesday, fire Chief Steve Dongworth told councillors that since
fire trucks were equipped with naloxone in December, firefighters have
administered the medication - used to reverse the effects of fentanyl
and other opioids - 45 times in a little more than a month.

Dongworth told reporters the community needs to pull "together to come
up with strategies to resolve," the emerging opioid crisis, and noted
simply administering naloxone isn't enough.

Ward 11 Coun. Brian Pincott said Thursday it's clear the current
response isn't cutting it, and he would welcome testing new solutions
in Calgary.

"Toronto is looking at safe injection sites, but there are other tools
that have to be in the tool box. If we can be that test place, that
pilot place for looking at all of the possible tools before it reaches
ultimate crisis points in Calgary, then let's do it," Pincott said.

"We're certainly at a crisis point where we have not a matter of years
to act, but a matter of months to act."
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MAP posted-by: Matt