Don’t ignore Canada’s second health-care crisis

There are two public health crises confronting Canada today. But the country has fully mobilized against only one.

That, of course, is COVID-19. For the past eight months, this disease has swept the nation like a health-care hurricane. In its wake, it has left more than 10,820 people dead and more than 286,000 others ill.

Canadian society and the Canadian economy have been ravaged as governments opened the spending taps and poured out hundreds of billions of dollars to carry us through a recession, as well as a pandemic. However you judge the responses from our federal, provincial and municipal governments, they have been determined, concerted and all-encompassing.

Yet, while this health-care battle has been waged in full view of us all, another enemy has largely slipped under the public’s radar: opioids.

Dangerous, highly addictive painkillers, opioids have exacted a terrible toll on Canada, claiming 16,364 lives between January 2016 and March 2020 — the month COVID-19 dropped on us like a bombshell. Since then, the opioid crisis has only become worse.

In Ontario, the number of opioid-related deaths and overdoses have spiked during the pandemic. A grim report released last week predicted more than 2,200 people would die from opioid overdoses in this province before the year is out — a 50 per cent increase from 2019, which was Ontario’s deadliest year ever. To put that figure in context, 3,352 people have died from COVID-19 in Ontario so far.

It would be wrong to suggest Canadian governments have ignored the opioid epidemic. Since the middle of this decade, they have tried to deal with it, introducing worthwhile initiatives that prevented overdoses and saved lives. But then COVID-19 happened. In trying to stop COVID-19, this country unintentionally exacerbated the opioid crisis. The closure of the Canada-U.S. border disrupted the supply chain that had been established for illicit drugs. As a result, drug dealers cut opioids with toxic additives to increase supplies and reduce their costs.

At the same time, the strategies adopted to cope with COVID-19 have often conflicted with the ones that had been used against opioids. To guard against the coronavirus, people are told to keep their distance from each other and self-isolate.

But health officials advise opioid users against taking the drug alone. And physical-distancing requirements have led some supervised consumption sites to reduce their activities or even close. While all this is happening, the relentless stress from the pandemic has made it harder for many drug users to give up the escape opioids offer. Responding to the opioid crisis was never easy. COVID-19 has made it harder, overshadowing opioid abuse even as it has dominated government agendas across the land.

It’s hard to wage a health-care war on two fronts. Canada must try. Many experts say what’s needed most is something that’s been lacking — a co-ordinated action plan from the federal government that would work in conjunction with provincial programs. Such efforts could deliver broader access to supervised consumption sites. They could also provide safer pharmaceutical alternatives to opioids and more opportunities for treatment.

But the country won’t get anywhere until it recognizes its second public health emergency. And those who still need convincing should heed the recent words of Canada’s chief public health official, the person who has been the face of the country’s COVID-19 response.

“Canadians should be seized with this particular crisis,” Dr. Theresa Tam said of opioid abuse. It is “escalating as we speak.”