One of the most important and pressing challenges of 2017 will be Canada's response to opioid addiction. The sheer scale of overdoses from heroin and other opioids has already led British Columbia to declare a public health emergency, and the crisis is sweeping east. Fentanyl has washed over the West Coast like a deadly tsunami. The synthetic opioid can be up to 100 times more potent than morphine. It's not just hardened addicts who are dying. Overdose deaths have spiked among occasional drug users, with fentanyl detected in street drugs ranging from heroin to marijuana. [continues 521 words]
Machines may be used to give addicts access to clean supplies Ottawa Public Health is exploring a pilot project that would allow drug users to access clean needles and pipes from a vending machine. Deputy Medical Officer of Health Vera Etches said the idea goes back to 2013, when OPH hosted a needs assessment with feedback from community groups and police looking at service gaps. "Most services that distribute supplies so people will use sterile supplies each time and decrease their risk of transmission operate Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.," she said. "There's no place for people to access supplies overnight and on weekends." [continues 228 words]
Needle-dispensing vending machines could be installed at five locations across central Ottawa, making it the first city in Canada to offer sterile syringes in machines to reduce drug-related virus transmission. Vera Etches, the deputy medical officer of health, said Ottawa Public Health hasn't yet decided what material would be available in the vending machines, but needles and crack pipes are definite possibilities. The machines would fill a gap in service for drug users who need clean needles when a community program is closed for the day. There are no 24/7 services that provide clean needles. [continues 514 words]
Growing up, Evan Blessett was as an avid soccer player and honor roll student. He loved skateboarding and played the drums later in his teen years. But one role that his dad, Doug, never thought his son would play was one of a recovering drug addict. "The thing that gets me is he got past us," Doug Blessett said about his 29-year-old son, who is a counselor at The Healing Place, an addiction recovery center in Louisville. "When my son went through this, I took it personally. You think you would see it, and I didn't." [continues 1428 words]
[photo] Dr. Deepak Ariga holds a needle favored by drug users in Hammond on April 9, 2015. (Jim Karczewski, Post-Tribune) An HIV outbreak in Scott County, Ind., has infected 106 people. Can needle exchanges stem the tide? An HIV outbreak in Scott County, Ind., has infected 106 people thus far, and despite reservations, Gov. Mike Pence green-lit a 30-day needle exchange program to stem the tide. But public health advocates say the exchange program should be extended to really make an impact and expanded across the state as such programs have been shown to be effective in stemming the tide of HIV and hepatitis C infection among IV drug users. [continues 1235 words]
[photo] A sign points to the entrance the Community Outreach Center in Austin, Ind., on April 4, 2015. (Tyler Stewart, AP) State and local health officials began a needle-exchange program Saturday in a southeastern Indiana county where an HIV outbreak among intravenous drug users has grown to nearly 90 cases. Scott County's needle-exchange program was created through an emergency executive order signed last week by Gov. Mike Pence in an attempt to curb the state's largest-ever HIV outbreak. That 30-day order temporarily suspended Indiana's ban on such programs, but only for the southeastern Indiana county about 30 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky. [continues 200 words]
A syringe is pictured along West Main Street in downtown Austin, Ind., in Scott County on Tuesday, March 24, 2015. (Christopher Fryer / AP) Years ago, William Cooke sensed a crisis building. The only doctor in rural Austin, Indiana, noticed that intravenous drug use was soaring in his town of roughly 4,300, where 23 percent of residents live below the poverty line. He feared that people addicted to injectable painkillers might be plucking used needles off lawns, shooting up -- and passing them on. [continues 1025 words]
A drug that can stop a heroin overdose, and potentially save a life, is available in Wisconsin. One agency provides the doses at no cost. But it's against the law for an individual with a prescription for naloxone, commonly known by its brand name Narcan, to use the drug on a friend or someone else overdosing on other opiates such as morphine, oxycodone and methadone. A recent report from the State Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse has recommended a 911 Good Samaritan Law to state lawmakers that, among other provisions, would offer limited immunity in such cases. [continues 957 words]
Heavy with needle users, London could move a step closer in February to a supervised injection site for drug-addicted residents amid renewed debate about the idea. The results of a feasibility study that surveyed 200 current and former needle users, as well as police, politicians, and social service and health agency representatives, is to be released in early February, Christopher Mackie, the Middlesex-London medical officer of health, said Wednesday. That study won't suggest a location or timeline to establish a site, but one area Conservative MP already is raising the alarm about the possibility. [continues 448 words]
A Needle Exchange Program operates in several sites across the county in Clinton, Seaforth and Goderich. In Clinton it is offered through the Huron County Health Unit, in Goderich it is offered through Choices For Change and in Seaforth it is through Dr. Datema's Methadone clinic. However, the Health Unit in Clinton is used the most due to its accessibility. The health unit's website states: "Like all health units in Ontario, the Huron County Health Unit offers a needle exchange program at several sites across the county. [continues 322 words]
After over a year of waiting for a needle exchange, the Clark County Health Department will open its syringe exchange at the end of January. The needle exchange, located at 1301 Akers Ave. in Jeffersonville, will start Jan. 26 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and be open each Thursday from then on. Dr. Kevin Burke, the Clark County health commissioner, said he hopes the program will eventually provide services two days a week and operate the needle exchange at other locations. [continues 625 words]
The state's medical marijuana program has been up and running for nearly eight months, and now some lawmakers are looking to expand the program in 2017. Eleven Legislative Service Requests (LSRs) for the upcoming session -- requests submitted by legislators to have bills drafted -- relate to therapeutic cannabis. Rep. Renny Cushing, D-Hampton, is sponsoring a measure to allow patients to cultivate therapeutic cannabis for their own use. The idea was a sticking point in the original debate about starting a program here. Gov. Maggie Hassan and the New Hampshire Association of Chiefs of Police opposed a grow-your-own provision, so the law was passed without it. [continues 405 words]
These life-saving places that promote public health will mostly be in existing centres A woman uses the public bathroom of a Toronto community centre to inject heroin. She figures it's safer than injecting on the street - it's clean and she won't be robbed. And if she overdoses, she hopes someone will find her soon enough to help her. This scenario is a reality for many users, and it's just one of many reasons Toronto is working toward opening the three supervised drug injection services that were approved by Toronto city council in July 2016. [continues 714 words]
Auntie's founder convinced of weed's medicinal abilities A medical marijuana dispensary operating in Bible Hill is making access easier for people who require it, clients say. The dispensary, called Auntie's Health and Wellness Center, is also beneficial because it offers medicinal cannabis in more forms and wider variety than conventional methods. "I believe people should have direct access to their medication. And they don't," said Auntie's founder Shirley Martineau. She said people who genuinely need marijuana are often forced to acquire it illegally, "and they don't know what they are getting." [continues 381 words]
A Kelowna safe injection site should be up and running by April, although what it will look like remains to be seen. Interior Health proposed two potential options last week - a fixed injection site at 477 Leon Ave. as well as a mobile site - and now they're embarking on the final community engagement process. The final phase of the application will be submitted to Health Canada once that's over, said Dr.Trevor Corneil, chief medical health officer with Interior Health, adding that the federal minister of health has offered every indication they want to move swiftly. [continues 602 words]
To the editor: I can certainly understand the initial negative reaction that many people would have towards the idea of safe injection sites. It seems like a counter-intuitive initiative that enables addicts instead of helping them. Additionally, it's fair to worry that providing services to addicts normalizes illegal drug-use, opposed to affirming the idea that it's a problem. However, as an educated society with endless access to a wealth of information, it's important for us to put aside our emotional response, at least long enough to analyze the facts. [continues 452 words]
Toronto has seen a 77-per-cent increase in overdose deaths between 2004 and 2014 Brooklyn McNeil was an Ontario scholar, singer, artist and harm reduction advocate. But the 22-year-old woman was also an injection drug addict who sadly died alone in June beside a dumpster in an east-end alley. It shouldn't have happened that way. McNeil was at the forefront of the movement to bring safe injection sites to Toronto, something that could have saved her life. [continues 373 words]
Health officials in Lucas County are working to get the area's first needle exchange program up and running by the spring. Health officials in Lucas County are working to get the area's first needle exchange program up and running by the spring, adding another weapon to their arsenal in the fight against the heroin and opioid epidemic. Toledo will be the last large metro area in Ohio to adopt such an exchange. Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati all have them, as do the smaller cities of Dayton and Portsmouth. Such programs aim to decrease the likelihood of spreading HIV or hepatitis C among users who share needles. [continues 1072 words]
