CAN WE KICK OUR ADDICTION TO OPIOIDS?

As sure as the sun rises in the east, young people are going to use drugs. But accepting this as true means grappling with a cascading series of questions: How serious is the problem today? How do you talk to your kids about drugs? How do you tell if your kids are using? How should schools address the issue? Is there space for discussions about safer drug use, or should our approach be abstinence-only?

What about treatment options? Are there enough beds for addicts in Ottawa, especially young addicts?

Not so long ago, parents sometimes faced down their teenager arriving home smelling of Smirnoff Ice or cigarettes stolen from someone’s dad. Of course, there has always been drug use — including hard drugs and opioids. In the 1990s, the party drug ecstasy led to many overdoses at raves (and is making a comeback). But the sinister danger of opioid overdose goes even further: the possibility of sudden death because of the potency of some opioids and their accessibility. It’s made more worrisome because of the difficulty of identifying some illicit drugs.

An open letter from Sean O’Leary, who says his daughter is a drug user, was posted online this weekend, laying bare the fears parents have about their kids using drugs. “My first thought every morning is to check that (she) is alive. It is a nightmare of a way to live life ... ,” he writes.

In 2015, 48 people in Ottawa died of overdoses; 24 of those were from opioids. While only one fatality was under the age of 20, 12 per cent of the deaths were among those in their 20s. Interestingly, more than one-third were people in their 50s. Across all demographics, it appears, a concerted effort is needed to arrest this trend, which saw a 32-per-cent jump in overdose deaths between 2014 and 2015.

So, are we doing enough — not just for young people, but for parents and families?

The federal government is cracking down on drug manufacturers through new legislation, and also making it easier for cities to open safeinjection sites; Ottawa’s Sandy Hill Community Health Centre has an application in for one. Ontario makes naloxone kits — which can slow an opioid overdose — available at pharmacies, and is increasing access to suboxone, an addiction treatment.

Ottawa Public Health provides a great deal of information on its website. There are also education programs in all four school boards about drugs. Yet, as anyone who remembers being a teenager can recall, this information doesn’t always sink in.

Are the “talk to your kids about drugs” websites and pamphlets really helpful when a minute quantity of an opioid can kill?

As for the counterfeit pills out there — which are suspected of taking the life of 14-year-old Chloe Kotval on Valentine’s Day — do parents know how to recognize them (which can verge on the impossible)? Do the people talking to kids and parents know?

It’s not just that talking to teens about drugs is hard for parents — talking about sex and relationships is, too — but there may be a dangerous knowledge gap across demographics.

Pharmacies are filling some of this — if you go to a drugstore to get a naloxone kit, you also get a discussion with a pharmacist. But more, and wider, public education efforts are needed.

Just as earlier social campaigns against smoking, and drunk driving, have served to educate and dissuade people from lethal behaviour, it’s time to fully acknowledge our deadly drug problem — and work across all age groups to fix it.