For the homeless, pandemic is ‘one crisis too many’
Opioid use fuelled by extra stresses, those who work with addicts fear
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the need for a safer supply of drugs even more urgent for Ottawa’s homeless drug users, say advocates for the city’s most vulnerable population.
Forced by emergency order out of the city parks where they spend their days, starved for panhandling cash on empty streets and facing a dwindling illicit-drug supply, the pandemic is fuel for the fire in the city’s existing opioid crisis.
“It’s one crisis too many for everybody,” said Wendy Muckle, executive director of Ottawa Inner City Health. “Homelessness is at its absolute worst. Then we have this vile opioid crisis. Then we have to get a pandemic? You have to wonder what’s next. You can’t imagine it can get any worse. Then it does.”
Inner City Health and the health clinic Recovery Care are together serving 37 Ottawa residents who have been approved for a safer-supply pilot project, giving them access to prescription opioids through OHIP. The safer-supply program, which began just a few months ago, isn’t a treatment plan, but is aimed at those who haven’t been helped by existing services: “Those most likely to die,” in Muckle’s words.
But 37 people are just a “drop in the bucket” of what’s needed, she said.
“We’re pushing hard on the safer-supply agenda. The illicit-drug supply, which has always been toxic and unstable, is even more unstable in the midst of the pandemic.”
Pharmacist Mark Barnes of Respect RX in Vanier says he’s been meeting with drug users since the pandemic began and is “terrified” of what he’s been hearing.
“They have more time on their hands. Time is dangerous to a person with opioid use disorder. Time leads to boredom and boredom leads to drug use. It gives them time to stew about their financial problems, their mental problems and why they use opioids in the first place. Addiction is not a character flaw. It’s a true mental health disorder.
“That’s where we see increased drug use. That goes for alcoholism and other addictions, too,” Barnes said.
“There’s an increased drug use risk and overdose potential because of the isolation, depression, anxiety due to COVID-19 and the lack of illicit-drug supply. Now they’re going to try experimenting with anything they can get their hands on to turn off that brain. It’s terrifying.”
The burden on homeless shelters has been immense, while in areas like Lowertown and the ByWard Market, food scarcity is also becoming a problem.
“Not only has the panhandling market dried up, many restaurants that have fed the homeless have now closed. Bathrooms are locked and parks are a no-go zone.
On top of this, the street drug supply is drying up, Barnes said.
“It’s harder to get drugs right now. Some advocates for abstinence think this is a positive thing. This is not a positive thing. This will lead to violence. It will lead to crime. It will lead to other problems. Now there’s even more of a need for a compassionate way to treat addiction disorder.”
A safer supply of drugs, even if it never leads to recovery from addiction, still makes sense, Barnes said.
“Some people may not ever get to treatment and it’s hard for society to get its head around that. They say, ‘Why are we doing this?’ But if you want to remove the humanity or compassionate element from it, then even fiscally, as a taxpayer, it still saves you money compared to treating one overdose.”
Muckle hopes it’s compassion that motivates society to want to act.
“When you talk about supplying opioids to people with an addiction, people can get all bent out of shape and say, ‘You should have an abstinent life.’ But the reality is, in this kind of pandemic all of us are just trying to survive. I do feel that there’s an understanding that people have to do what they have to do to get through the day.
“All of us are struggling these days.” bcrawford@postmedia.com Twitter.com/getBAC
It gives them time to stew about their financial problems, their mental problems and why they use opioids …