Pharmacist’s good intentions ruled wrong

Moved by opioid overdose deaths he let staff help him hand out life-saving kits without proper supervision

TORONTO — A pharmacist who went door-to-door handing out naloxone kits in a neighbourhood ravaged by opioid use choked back tears on Friday as he admitted to professional misconduct.

At a disciplinary hearing, Jason Newman said he felt he had no choice given the urgent need for the potentially life-saving drug.

“I am guilty of misconduct,” Newman said haltingly. “Despite

that, I have certainly saved lives with what I did.”

The disciplinary panel accepted a joint recommendation on punishment: a month-long licence suspension and an oral reprimand for tarnishing the profession. Newman also has one year to pass an ethics course, failing which would get his licence suspended for a second month.

Newman admitted to failing to live up to professional standards by improperly supervising people who helped him give out the anti-opioid drug. He also agreed he had failed to live up to an undertaking he gave the Ontario College of Pharmacists in February last year to abide by the standards.

The owner of Delaware Pharmacy near London, Ont., said he was spurred to action when he visited a homeless shelter, but staff refused to allow him to offer training in naloxone use. They turned him down again a week later, he said, even after someone died of an overdose.

“I decided it was necessary to train people around the area as quickly as possible,” Newman told the panel.

Naloxone is a potentially lifesaving medication used to reverse opioid overdoses. It can be given free to members of the public, although pharmacists can claim a dispensing fee.

But pharmacists are expected to provide education on its use, on identifying overdoses, the importance of calling 911, and resuscitation.

Newman said he went doorto-door to up to 40 businesses in the immediate shelter area, but delegated some of the distribution task because he couldn’t do it all himself. He said he allowed non-pharmacist employees to provide kit recipients with background information and training, but only after extensive practice.

“We’d already been through it several hundred times,” he said. In May 2018, Newman and two assistants went door to door in a Cambridge neighbourhood offering residents naloxone in both a needle and nasal spray kit. As part of his admissions, Newman agreed to a new undertaking to abide by the rules, saying he now has 10 other pharmacists he can count on for distribution and training.

Nearly 1,500 people died of opioid-related causes in Ontario last year, up from 1,261 deaths reported in 2017.

He must also pay the college $7,500 to cover its costs.