Toronto Star

Experts say strategy for opioids is needed

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Addiction experts say Canada needs acomprehen­sive national strategy to curb rampant over-prescribin­g of opioids and reduce escalating rates of overdose deaths from the powerful drugs.

Dr. Benedikt Fischer, of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, said Canadians are the second-highest consumers of opioids worldwide, after the U.S. Writing in the Canadian Medical Associatio­n Journal, Fischer and co-authors say an estimated 2,000 Canadians died from opioid overdoses last year.

Fischer says an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 Canadians have died from overdosing on prescripti­on drugs like oxycodone, hydromorph­one and fentanyl in the last 10 years.

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