Ontario must declare an opioid emergency
It is not enough to move slowly while people are losing their loved ones, family members, friends, colleagues and patients from preventable deaths
More than 700 harm-reduction workers, nurses, physicians, nurse practitioners, public health officials and others working within our health-care system, from 59 different cities and towns in Ontario, have signed a letter calling on the provincial government to declare an immediate emergency in response to opioid overdoses and related deaths in Ontario.
The Ontario provincial government has been slow and ineffectual in its response to the deaths of Ontarians from the opioid crisis. Drug users and their allies have been left to respond to the recent opioid crisis alone, without sufficient funding or support. Appallingly, the most recent data available for Ontario is from 2016. It showed that opioid deaths jumped 11 per cent in the first half of 2016. For those on the front lines, it is evident that the current rate of opioid-related deaths is exceeding the mid-2016 estimate of two deaths per day and the rate of emergency department opioid-related visits has risen dramatically. This crisis has impacted people all across the province, including in northern Ontario.
In response, the provincial government has asked for more data, while people are dying. This is not enough. It is not enough to move slowly while people are losing their loved ones, family members, friends, colleagues and patients from pre- ventable deaths. Peer workers, with severely limited funding and support, have been handed the heavy burden of witnessing overdoses and being first responders, watching over their friends in alleyways, on stairs and in public bathrooms.
Brave front-line harm-reduction workers in Toronto recently opened an overdose prevention site in Moss Park, which is providing a safe space for people to use. Since its opening, city officials have expedited the opening of an interim city-sanctioned supervised injection site at Toronto Public Health’s The Works.
The provincial government has finally released funding requested by South Riverdale Community Health Centre and Queen West Community Health Centre to start their own supervised injection sites in fall 2017.
The opening of the site in Moss Park has also inspired those in health care and public health into action.
We are calling for a declaration of an emergency, to hold the province accountable to implement a plan to respond to this crisis.
We need increased funding for front- line workers, additional supervised injection sites and overdose prevention sites across the province and support and treatment for people who use drugs. Naloxone, the life-saving medication that can reverse opioid overdoses, needs to be made available broadly and in innovative ways, such as through home programs and emergency departments.
We need wider access to drug testing; with the current tainted supply, life-saving information can be gained by testing drugs before they are consumed. This is a public health crisis, and it needs a coordinated public health response, not a criminal justice response. An emergency declaration would also send a message to survivors, families and communities that their lives are respected.
Let us take leadership from those most affected by this crisis and listen carefully to them when they say, as displayed on banners during a protest organized by front-line harm-reduction workers at the 2017 International Harm Reduction Conference in Montreal: “They talk, we die.” We hope Premier Kathleen Wynne and her cabinet will hear these words and move into action, starting with this necessary political declaration for an emergency in Ontario. Dr. Nanky Rai is a family physician in Toronto. Zoe Dodd is a hepatitis C program co-ordinator in Toronto. Dr. Michaela Beder is a psychiatrist in Toronto. Dr. Mary Yang is a psychiatry resident in Toronto.