ALBERTA TAKES IMPORTANT STEP IN FIGHT TO STOP OPIOID DEATHS
There, the NDP finally said it. Alberta’s fentanyl deaths are an “emergency.”
That’s pretty obvious after 113 fatalities already in the first three months of this year, after 363 in 2016. Overdoses now kill more people in Alberta than traffic crashes and homicides combined.
In 2011, there were only six deaths from this scourge. Opioids have become an undeniable public emergency.
It’s also a suburban problem, not just a blight on the inner city. Last year, 80 per cent of Calgary deaths were outside the city core.
On Wednesday, the government announced a new body called the Minister’s Opioid Emergency Response Commission.
That one word matters because the New Democrats have refused to declare a formal emergency under the Public Health Act.
They say this isn’t needed because the province already has the powers necessary to deal with opioids.
But there was still a case for an emergency decree to show how serious this is.
Now we have a new commission, with the forbidden word right in the title, to deal with a scourge every politician and expert on offer Wednesday called either “crisis,” “emergency,” or “epidemic.”
The government has finally put Alberta on red alert. It’s about time.
This is far more than just overdue symbolism. It’s also an effort to identify and implement specific solutions, from locations of clinics to safe-injection sites and targeted distribution of antidotes.
The government will expand distribution of naloxone — which reverses the effects of overdose — and begin to cover the cost of suboxone and methadone — drugs that ease the effects of withdrawal — if they’re prescribed as opioid replacement therapy.
The panel is co-chaired by Dr. Karen Grimsrud, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, and Dr. Elaine Hyshka, scientific director of the inner-city health program at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra hospital.
Other members include Dr. Esther Tailfeathers, physician on the hard-hit Kainai First Nation (Blood Tribe); and Petra Schultz, parent advocate with Moms Stop the Harm.
The 14-member panel has a deep mix of street knowledge, medical expertise, legal and police experience, and family understanding gained through addiction and grief.
The question, as always with such panels, is whether the government will pay the slightest attention to it. Alberta has a long history of commissions appointed to bury problems, not solve them.
I don’t see that happening with this body. The problem is too acute. The government is also in serious need of help.
Only two weeks ago, Grimsrud called for expanded action against opioids. She pointed to a large number of deaths outside the downtown cores of both Calgary and Edmonton.
She conceded Wednesday that this isn’t fully understood, although she suggests it’s partly due to recreational use.
This is a complex crisis that people stumble into from many directions. Among the victims are first responders scarred by dealing with drug-related death and danger.
B.C. is in even worse shape. The astonishing total of 922 people who died from drug overdoses in 2016 is an increase of nearly 80 per cent from the previous year.
Obviously, the declaration of a public emergency didn’t do B.C. much good.
Many people assume that opioid users made their choice and deserve what they get. When I’ve written about this before, the reaction has been deeply hostile to victims.
But it’s far more complex than that. Many people who become addicted were prescribed opioids after surgery or painful injury. “Addiction is not a choice — it’s an illness,” one panellist said.
That may have happened to ultra-wealthy golfer Tiger Woods, who was arrested Monday for impaired driving. He was semiconscious and incoherent, according to reports.
Woods’ claims that he wasn’t drinking proved correct. Tests found opioids in his system — hardly surprising in an athlete who’s had eight knee and back surgeries.
This poison is everywhere now. Nobody has the answer to it. The NDP’s latest effort may be overdue, but it certainly looks focused, credible and serious.