Watchdog stands firm on requirement it be notified in cases involving the drug Ontario's police watchdog is pushing back at chiefs for suggesting their officers might hesitate to provide the life-saving drug naloxone out of fear that it could prompt an investigation by the civilian agency. In a strongly worded letter Thursday, the director of the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said the agency would not back down on its expectation that it be notified in cases where a civilian is injured or dies after an officer administers naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. [continues 793 words]
Decriminalization is the right move , say James Hutt and Emilie Taman. Canada's overdose crisis is getting worse, not better. In 2016, there were 2,861 opioid-related deaths. Last year, there were more than 4,000. All of them were preventable. As the NDP gathers in Ottawa this weekend for its national policy convention, many hope that this issue will be front and centre. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has already indicated that he favours the decriminalization of all drugs - not because it's the popular but because it's the right thing to do. [continues 551 words]
Thank you, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, for giving me cover so I don't wind up being painted as the "worst person in the world," the label Keith Olbermann used on his TV show to hang on people he didn't like. I have been silent as the opioid epidemic raged because I had no clear-cut solution. The debate currently swirls around the idea of city-approved "safe injection sites," more formally known as CUES -- comprehensive user engagement sites. [continues 545 words]
Three weeks ago, after Philadelphia announced that it would encourage the opening of a safe injection site, I praised the decision as a bold kind of leadership. It showed that the city was stepping on the national stage in the middle of a life-and-death catastrophe. I still think that. Now the city has to sell it. Sure, it's only been three weeks. But in the absence of an immediate city PR strategy for saving lives - it feels funny even writing that - you can feel myths proliferating. The city cannot simply react to the discourse. It must help lead it. [continues 805 words]
Drug treatment can't help dead people. That's why San Francisco is scheduled to open two safe injection sites later this year, where drug users will be allowed to shoot up under medical supervision. If an addict overdoses, trained staff will be available to revive them with an overdose antidote like naloxone, commonly known as Narcan. Staffers can also recommend treatment options to those interested. In an effort to stem fatal overdoses, safe injection sites are now under discussion in such cities as Philadelphia, Seattle, and Ithaca, N.Y. [continues 494 words]
Provincial plan aims to fill gap for communities waiting on permanent services for opioid crisis A temporary supervised drug use site will open its doors in London, Ont., Monday - the first of what is expected to be many under a new provincial emergency-response program that will fill the gap for communities waiting on permanent sites. Thousands of people are dying from overdoses every year across Canada. In Ontario alone, there were 336 opioid-related deaths between May and July last year, up 68 per cent from that same period the year before. Fentanyl, a drug so potent that mere grains of it can be lethal, was a factor in 67 per cent of those deaths - up from 41 per cent in 2016, and 19 per cent in 2015. [continues 648 words]
Ontario's first legal drugoverdose prevention site opens Monday in London. The site, temporary while the search continues for a permanent site, will be located at 186 King St. The site is part of the health unit's response to the opioid crisis sweeping Canada, whose toll ran to nearly 1,500 people in the first half of last year alone. The London site, embebbed within the Regional HIV/AIDS Connection program location, has been granted an exemption from Canada's criminal drug laws. [continues 91 words]
The Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit has expanded its harm-reduction strategy related to intravenous drug users. With opioid addiction an increasing problem in the local area and elsewhere, the health unit has set up three 24-hour disposal sites where users can dispose of old needles. Needle disposal is a concern for health officials because intravenous drug abuse is highly correlated with blood-borne illnesses, such as HIV and hepatitis. Used needles that aren't properly disposed pose a hazard to young people who may pick them up or people passing by who are inadvertently stabbed. [continues 235 words]
Officials in San Francisco said Tuesday they will open two safe injection sites this summer, joining Philadelphia and Seattle on the list of American cities that are planning to open sites where people in addiction can use drugs under medical supervision and be revived if they overdose. The announcement comes three weeks after Philadelphia officials announced their own plans to open a site here. Like Philadelphia's, the San Francisco site will be funded privately. And also like Philadelphia, the funding sources aren't yet clear, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. City officials there said they were working with "six to eight nonprofits that already operate needle exchanges and offer other drug addiction services." Two will host the first safe injection sites, and will likely open in July, officials said. [continues 105 words]
Re: Advocates pushing for safe injection site, by Brian Cross, Jan. 26. In this excellent article it mentions several people who advocate for a safe injection site and express the urgent need for an overdose prevention site. The article makes the following points: the need for the presence of medical professionals to supervise injections by drug users; the need to provide new needles in order to prevent infections; the importance of administering naloxone in case of an overdose; and the need to provide counselling so that more drug users will become former addicts, as is the case of Matt Cascadden. [continues 201 words]
San Francisco is on track to open its first two safe injection sites this July, a milestone that will likely make the city the first in the country to embrace the controversial model of allowing drug users to shoot up under supervision. Other cities - including Seattle, Baltimore and Philadelphia - are talking about opening their own safe injection facilities, but San Francisco could get there first. Facilities already exist in Canada, Australia and Europe. Barbara Garcia, director of San Francisco's Department of Public Health, said Monday that she's tending to the details, including where the facilities will be located. She's working with six to eight nonprofits that already operate needle exchanges and offer other drug addiction services, and two of them will be selected to offer safe injection on-site. [continues 956 words]
Some fear increased police presence will drive drug users to avoid health services While Vancouver police proclaim victory in a recent crackdown on crime in the Downtown Eastside, some locals fear the boost in beat cops is pushing people who use drugs into harm's way. Last week, Vancouver police increased foot patrols to address "street disorder" and prevent violence. Police said the sweeps came in response to a surge in complaints from residents, business owners and visitors. As well, people with mobility issues and the elderly have complained about blocked sidewalks and doorways. [continues 621 words]
A Philly nurse on safe injection sites "You want me to do what?" "Where's your compassion?" "What a waste of resources!" "I have an obligation to help people stay healthy." These are conflicting responses I imagine nurses and health-care professionals may have when asked to provide care at safe injection sites, places where people can use drugs under medical supervision. There aren't any such sites right now. But the City of Philadelphia announced that it will encourage setting them up. Should health-care professionals participate? It's a dilemma wrought with ethical, moral, legal, and regulatory issues and more questions than answers. As a nurse, I can understand and appreciate both sides. [continues 551 words]
453 people were revived 'from the brink of death' in 2017, Hamilton city officials hear More than one-quarter of naloxone kits distributed through Hamilton Public Health last year were used to revive someone from an overdose. Of the 1,700 opioid antidote kits handed out in 2017, 453 were reportedly used to revive a person. "Four-hundred and fifty-three people revived from the brink of death. It's hard to imagine that's anything but a success," said Michael Parkinson, who works with the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council and the Municipal Drug Strategy Coordinators Network of Ontario. [continues 633 words]
Physicians are afraid of doing the right thing, says Jordan Westfall. Public health officials in Windsor-Essex are sounding alarms about overdose deaths increasing in the past year. They have stated their interest in "exploring " if the cities of Windsor and Leamington need supervised consumption sites through a "feasibility study." Supervised consumption sites are places for people to use drugs in a safer manner, with properly trained staff ensuring nobody dies of overdose. Feasibility studies are costly to taxpayers, and even more expensive for people at risk of overdose, who will pay for this consultation with their lives. [continues 484 words]
"It's so unbearably soul-crushing," says Jennifer Johnson, referring to Niagara's exponential increase in opioid overdoses. "When is this going to end?" A report presented at a Niagara Region public health committee meeting this week shows a 335 per cent increase in the number of opioid overdoses that Niagara Emergency Medical Service paramedics responded to last year. In 2017 paramedics responded to 520 suspected overdoses, compared to 155 a year earlier. "You look at the news from out in B.C. and they've been knee-deep in this for years. But the numbers keep exponentially growing," said Johnson, co-founder of NAMES (Niagara Area Moms Ending Stigma), who lost her 25-year-old son Jonathan to a fentanyl overdose in April 2016. [continues 1239 words]
Committee to look at report next week Sudbury could become home to a safe injection site. The community services committee will hear next week about the prospect of undertaking a feasibility study for a site, which will cost $150,000 to $200,000. Council is being asked to endorse the report. "Through community consultations, under the mental health and compassionate city community priorities, the suggested action includes the study of and possible establishment of a supervised injection site," a staff report indicates. "In addition, the establishment of (a safe injection site) has been prioritized by the community drug strategy as part of the harm reduction pillar area of responsibility." [continues 439 words]
Last year was "the most tragic year ever" for illicit drug overdose deaths in B.C., prompting public health officials to push for the decriminalization of opioid possession and consumption to address the fentanyl epidemic. In 2017, 1,422 people died of illicit drug overdose deaths, up from 993 in 2016, chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said Wednesday. Victoria had the highest number of overdose deaths on Vancouver Island with 91, behind Vancouver (358) and Surrey (174). Lapointe said the epidemic in B.C. is "related to uncontrolled illicit fentanyl." [continues 667 words]
Kendall ends term by calling on province to think further outside the box, its comfort zones British Columbia's provincial health officer concluded his last day in the role with a call to further push the envelope in responding to the province's overdose crisis, which new numbers show killed more than 1,400 people last year. Perry Kendall said on Wednesday the year-end tally of 1,422 illicit-drug overdose deaths - a figure that works out to a rate of 29.6 per 100,000 population and will grow as outstanding death investigations are completed - show that B.C. is "still in the midst of a persistent and continuing epidemic of unintentional poisoning deaths. [continues 975 words]
OTTAWA - The war on drugs may move to a new battlefield in Canada, if Liberal MPs get their way: the 2019 federal election campaign. They're pushing the Trudeau government to go much further than legalizing recreational marijuana. In a priority resolution they hope will be adopted at the Liberals' policy convention in April for inclusion in the next election platform, the national caucus is calling on the government to eliminate criminal penalties for simple possession and consumption of all illicit drugs. [continues 352 words]
