Edmonton is battling a new drug overdose crisis that simply doesn't fit any standard assumptions, council members were told Monday. Only 20 per cent of the overdose deaths from fentanyl last year were in core neighbourhoods. Young men in the suburbs are actually at a much higher risk, said city officials. "This has gone beyond being an inner-city issue," said Mayor Don Iveson, adding those dying most often from illicit fentanyl and prescription opioid painkillers are taking them alone at home where no one is available to help when things go wrong. [continues 510 words]
Last May, Ontario's minister of health, Dr. Eric Hoskins, announced that Ontario would ensure pharmacies dispense Naloxone kits to anyone at risk of an opioid overdose. At last count, seven pharmacies in Peterborough are participating in this attempt to prevent these tragedies from occurring in our communities. People using opioids, whether prescribed or obtained illicitly, or their families and friends, can now get a free rescue drug, Naloxone, to be used in the event of a witnessed overdose. These access points are in addition to the kits that have been available through public health, PARN and Fourcast. [continues 518 words]
The fentanyl crisis in Alberta has been well documented. The harm the drug is doing to Alberta families, schools and communities has become a major public issue in the last two years. It hasn't gone unnoticed by police and political leaders. Alberta's government has added more treatment beds for addicts and victims of overdoses. It has also made sure more emergency overdose treatment kits are available in police and fire stations, on ambulances, at emergency departments, even in provincial jails and schools. [continues 424 words]
When asked if fentanyl is the now biggest reason to fear recreational drugs, Valemount RCMP Officer, Chris Gallant said, "To answer the question simply, yes." The Valemount Secondary School hosted a fentanyl forum to educate residents on what fentanyl is, what an overdose looks like and how to reverse the effects of an overdose. A similar presentation was given to students earlier in the day. Principal Dan Kenkel emceed the forum and the panel consisted of the B.C. Ambulance Service's (BCAS), Dakota Stone, B.C. Emergency Health Services' (BCEHS) Community Paramedic, Jasmin Gasser, Northern Health Mental Health and Addictions Counselor, Heather Whalen, Northern Health Community Health Nurse, Bernita Nesjan, and RCMP Officer, Chris Gallant. [continues 578 words]
Despite a completely clean campus always being the goal, top brass at Royal Military College are pleased with the results of a blind drug test conducted in mid-October that weren't exactly perfect. "Having now tangible, fact-based information is really great. It gives us a good assessment of the current situation," Brig.-Gen. Sean Friday, commandant of RMC, told the Whig-Standard on Wednesday. "The whole idea of a blind drug test is so that we can get actual information to see if our [Canadian Armed Forces] drug control program at large is succeeding or not." [continues 694 words]
New provincial statistics paint an increasingly grim picture of Alberta's fight against fentanyl, as the NDP government escalated its efforts Tuesday to get more naloxone antidote into the hands of first responders. Alberta Health's latest opioid report from 2016 suggests a deepening crisis is playing out across much of the province, where fentanyl was a factor in 343 overdose deaths last year - up one-third from 2015. The statistics show the final three months of 2016 were particularly harsh. The deaths of 111 people were related to fentanyl in that time frame, more than double the number from the same period in 2015. [continues 503 words]
As B.C. continues to cope with a stunning number of fatal opioid overdoses, the province has significantly expanded the number of places where people can use drugs, knowing help is nearby in case of an overdose. It's a stop-gap measure to try to save lives now, while (hopefully) longer-term measures are put in place. Nevertheless, with dozens dying every week, some have suggested a link between the presence of the long-running supervised injection site, InSite in Vancouver, and the current overdose epidemic. [continues 485 words]
Get ready for the worst, intervention counsellor warns province Andy Bhatti has spent the majority of his life surrounded by hard drugs. As an interventionist, he can talk to you eloquently about the dangers of drug use, quote Canadian statistics, and offer his ideas about what programs and services are needed in order to help drug users and stop overdoses. He can just as easily slip into the language of a drug user, calling drugs by their slang names, giving you a list of his acquaintances who have died, and talking like living in stolen cars and dirty motels while committing crimes in order to support an expensive addiction is a regular fact of life. [continues 950 words]
City firefighters are being equipped with the life-saving, anti-opioid drug naloxone as a response to the growing number of over doses happening in Barrie and across Simcoe County. Barrie Fire and Emergency Service will be the first fire department in Ontario to administer this medication, according to Fire Chief Bill Boyes. An overdose of opioid drugs - such as fentanyl, morphine, heroin, methadone or oxycodone - can cause a person's breathing to slow or stop. "Our primary concern is always the safety and well-being of those involved in any emergency we respond to," Boyes said. "We are already attending these calls so there will be no increase in medical responses as a result of our ability to administer naloxone, (but) it will allow us to provide a life-saving intervention in a timely manner." [continues 587 words]
Calling someone a junkie was once the norm, but many people who use illicit drugs and those who treat them say the word addict is just as stigmatizing. At the Crosstown Clinic, which provides pharmaceutical heroin treatment for people hooked on the opioid, someone has crossed out "addicts" on a notice posted by a group called the Addicts Union and substituted "patients." Dr. Scott MacDonald, lead physician at Crosstown, said the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders no longer lists the term addict. [continues 519 words]
[photo] This Feb. 19, 2013, file photo, shows OxyContin pills arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt. (Toby Talbot / AP) Flanked by commissioners from a half-dozen state agencies, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced legislative pointed at prescription drugs, a dangerous pathway to opioid addiction. "Every city and every town in the country has been touched in some way by substance abuse -- and in particular the growing prescription pain killer epidemic. Our local communities are no exception. This is a complex crisis that does not have one root cause, nor does it have a simple solution," Malloy said in a statement. "Addiction is a disease, and together we can treat and prevent it. Our work on this front will not be finished until our communities and our families are no longer struggling with the grave costs of this illness." [continues 126 words]
Worker ponders taking case to human rights commission Joshua Jacquot says his employer won't allow him during working hours to take the medication he needs to cope with depression and anxiety because that medication is medical marijuana. It's doctor-prescribed and legal, and according to the 23-year-old assembly line worker, "it seems to be the only thing that works." But he said when he informed Ventra Assembly several months ago that he wanted to take it at work, he was told, "no," to use regular prescribed drugs instead. He said he's already tried them and they don't help. He went off on sick leave in November, he said, and continues to fight, because he can't use the medication he needs at work. [continues 576 words]
Jackson County announced Tuesday that it will join St. Louis County in a prescription drug monitoring program as a way to fight abuse of painkillers. Missouri is the only state in the nation without a system to track the sales of prescription drugs. Despite repeated attempts over the past decade and wide support from health advocates, law enforcement and others, the General Assembly has been unable to pass legislation that would set up a statewide program. A small number of opponents have blocked those bills, citing privacy concerns. [continues 324 words]
A new poll suggests most Ottawa residents are in favour of a safe injection site, even though the seriousness of the opioid crisis has yet to register with many of them. The Mainstreet Research poll, conducted for Postmedia, found that 53 per cent of those surveyed support the plan to open a safe injection site in Ottawa. The pollsters found that 32 per cent of respondents disapproved of the idea; 15 per cent offered no opinion. Officials from the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre have submitted a proposal to the federal government and hope to open a facility this spring that would allow clients to take drugs under medical supervision. [continues 382 words]
WATERLOO REGION - Waterloo Regional Police officers will be carrying nasal naloxone beginning in February. Front-line officers are currently going through training on naloxone - a drug used to temporarily reverse the effects of opioid overdoses, said Insp. Mike Haffner. The training is being provided at police headquarters on Maple Grove Road by local paramedics, he said. "We want the ability to save an individual's life," Haffner added. Local paramedics have lifesaving naloxone kits and can provide someone overdosing with a naloxone injection. But often police are the first responders to arrive at drug overdose calls. [continues 365 words]
[photo] A bottle of Oxycontin pills. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times) A Washington city devastated by black-market OxyContin filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the painkillers' manufacturer Thursday, alleging the company turned a blind eye to criminal trafficking of its pills to "reap large and obscene profits" and demanding it foot the bill for widespread opioid addiction in the community. The suit by Everett, a city of 100,000 north of Seattle, was prompted by a Times investigation last year. The newspaper revealed that drugmaker Purdue Pharma had extensive evidence pointing to illegal trafficking across the nation, but in many cases, did not share it with law enforcement or cut off the flow of pills. [continues 1125 words]
McKesson Corporation agreed to pay $150 million to settle allegations from federal authorities that the company failed to monitor and report suspicious sales of oxycodone and hydrocodone. The Washington Post reported on the settlement in December, gleaned from a publicly disclosed Form 8-K filed by McKesson on April 30, 2015. Tuesday was the first mention of the settlement by federal law enforcement authorities. The settlement stemmed from an earlier case. In 2008, McKesson agreed to pay $13.25 million after the government alleged it failed to create and maintain a system to detect and report suspicious orders of increasing amounts of oxycodone and hydrocodone pills to independent and small chain pharmacies. [continues 297 words]
"We should be doing whatever we can to make lifesaving treatments accessible to those suffering from addiction," said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. [photo] New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman speaks during a press conference on September 23, 2016 in New York City.(Photo: Drew Angerer, Getty Images) Anthem, the nation's second-largest insurance company, has ended its policy of pre-authorizations for drugs to treat opioid use disorder following an agreement with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, his office said Thursday. [continues 776 words]
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- One of the nation's largest pharmaceutical distributors allegedly failed to report suspicious orders in Kentucky and elsewhere, contributing to a spike in abuse of painkillers called opioids, federal authorities have charged. McKesson Corp. agreed to pay a $150 million penalty for alleged violations of federal drug law, the U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday. The case was a civil, not criminal, matter. The settlement resolves an investigation of a McKesson distribution center in Washington Court House, Ohio, by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency office in London and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky, based in Lexington, according to a news release. [continues 197 words]
A year ago, I woke in the night with pain so severe I was crying before I was fully aware what was going on. A 50-year-old cop sobbed like a child in the dark. It was a ruptured disc and related nerve damage. Within a couple of months, it became so severe that I could no longer walk or stand. An MRI later, my surgeon soothingly told me it would all be OK. A nurse practitioner handed me a prescription for painkillers -- 180 tablets, 90 each of oxycodone and hydrocodone. [continues 656 words]
