More can be done to stop carnage
Just how horrific Ontario’s opioid crisis has become came into sharp focus this past week with the release of timely new data from Ontario’s chief coroner, Dirk Huyer.
Sadly, from May to July of this year, there were 336 opioid-related deaths in the province, up from 201 in that same period last year. That represents a staggering 68-per-cent increase.
Health Minister Eric Hoskins put a human face on the startling statistics when he reminded Ontarians that “each and every one of these numbers is a person: someone who was loved by their family, someone who won’t be coming home this holiday season.”
Just as shocking was the number of emergency-department visits related to opioid overdoses in the province. Between July and September there were 2,449. That’s a hike of 115 per cent from the same period a year earlier.
No wonder Hoskins termed it a “public-health crisis” and announced sensible actions his ministry is taking to prevent the rapid increase in opioid-related deaths and hospitalizations.
For one, the Ontario government will offer 61 police services and 447 fire departments free naloxone kits. The drug can reverse an overdose.
Ontario has also received an exemption for temporary overdose prevention centres from federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor to ensure that nurses and other harm-reduction staff working at any pop-up sites that are not approved by Ottawa are not prosecuted.
“This new ability would strengthen Ontario’s harm reduction efforts in communities and protect the courageous front-line workers at these sites from federal prosecution,” Hoskins said.
That’s good news for volunteer nurses and staff at the pop-up safe injection trailer at Toronto’s Moss Park. They set their site up in August, initially in a tent, to prevent drug users from overdosing. At the time, none of the three federally approved sites in Toronto had opened its doors.
Since then the city has opened two of the sites. One, on Victoria Street in the Yonge-Dundas area, opened shortly after the Moss Park pop-up tent was set up. Another, at South Riverdale Community Health Centre, opened on Nov. 27. A third, at Queen WestCentral Community Health Clinic, is hoping to open its doors by mid-January. Much more can be done. First, Ontario municipalities should apply to open up more permanent injection centres and encourage more pop-up sites. British Columbia, for example, has more than 20 temporary supervised injection sites, in addition to its permanent sites.
Second, questions about legal liability for police officers who use naloxone on people they suspect are overdosing must be cleared up.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit, the province’s police watchdog, must make clear — as B.C.’s comparable unit has — that police will not come under scrutiny if someone dies during life-saving treatment. Otherwise, the province’s police departments can’t be expected to ask their officers to carry naloxone.
Last week the SIU simply reiterated that it is “mandated to investigate any incident involving police where there has been serious injury, death or an allegation of sexual assault.” That’s not good enough.
Third, the province must make clear how long it is going to pay for the $120 kits. Police departments may be wary of starting to carry the kits if the costs won’t be covered down the road.
While the kits are not a magic pill for saving lives they do offer hope until trained emergency responders arrive on the scene.
Indeed, the Canadian Mental Health Association even urged bars, restaurants and other public venues to start stocking the life-saving kits. And the Ontario government has made them free at some pharmacies to anyone carrying an OHIP card.
In the end, as Hoskins pointed out, numbers can never tell the story of a life lost to an overdose. But here’s one last sobering statistic: Some 3,000 people, or about eight a day, are expected to die of opioid overdoses across the country this year. Hopefully, the new measures adopted last week and those still to come will help stem that sad tide.
Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins’ new measures to fight the opioid crisis are welcome. But there’s still much more that must be done to stop the carnage