Ontario gets opioid-awareness push

Tory MPP says government should devote more ad dollars to warn of the drug’s dangers

Ontario isn’t moving quickly enough to warn the public about the dangers of opioid drugs at a time when “one bad pill” can kill, say the parents of a 17-year-old Ottawa teen who overdosed in 2013.

They joined Progressive Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod at a news conference Tuesday calling in a private members’ bill for the government to devote 10 per cent of its advertising budget, about $5.7 million, to the opioid overdose crisis.

“Our son ended up passing away, basically, from one bad pill,” Steve Cody said of his late son, Nick.

He noted counterfeit opioid tablets are sold by drug dealers for as little as $3 to $5 and may contain the potent painkiller fentanyl, which can be fatal in tiny doses.

MacLeod said there’s not enough information about the perils of opioids in the school system or the general public, and suggested more materials for students along with ads on public transit and other media.

“We have to be very direct,” she told reporters. “There’s a lot of parents out there that don’t know.”

Health Minister Eric Hoskins said the government has been working on getting education materials and other measures ready in the wake of its August announcement of an additional $222 million over three years to fight the opioid scourge.

Emergency department visits for overdoses soared 76 per cent across the province in April, May and June from the same period last year. Opioid deaths rose19 per cent in 2016 to 865 people.

Hoskins said education materials will be geared toward “an effective message reaching those at risk.”

He has scheduled an announcement Wednesday morning with Dr. David Williams, the province’s chief medical officer of health and provincial overdose co-ordinator.

Public concern about opioids has been growing along with the number of deaths, prompting health-care workers to volunteer their time at an unsanctioned pop-up safe injection site at Moss Park in Toronto.

Cody, a member of the group We the Parents pushing for more awareness of opioid dangers who appeared at the news conference with his wife Natalie, said teens can easily run into trouble because they don’t understand the risks.

Hoskins defended the government’s efforts in fighting opioids, which will include materials for adults on prescription opioid painkillers such as oxycodone and morphine “to better inform them of the risks.”