Pubdate: Sat, 16 Apr 2016
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Times Colonist
Contact:  http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Tamsyn Burgmann
Page: A4

B.C. INMATES WIN BID FOR ADDICTION THERAPY

VANCOUVER - Prisoners struggling with opiate addictions in British 
Columbia jails have gained the same right to medical treatment as 
people outside the corrections system.

B.C. Corrections has implemented a new policy after four men who 
alleged they were denied opiate replacement therapy launched a 
charter challenge last month.

The men, who are addicted to opiates and range in age from their 20s 
to late 40s, are now under the care of doctors after a settlement 
that will also give other prisoners access to timely therapy.

"We know, regrettably, there are drugs in provincial and federal 
institutions," their lawyer, Adrienne Smith, said Friday. "The 
fentanyl epidemic doesn't stop at the prison gate."

"This is a step in the right direction to keep people well, 
particularly when they're at a good place being able to ask for 
medical support."

The new policy comes as the province's medical health officer Dr. 
Perry Kendall declared Thursday that B.C. is facing a public health 
emergency involving overdoses involving drugs such as the 
opioid-based pain killer fentanyl.

Dr. M-J Milloy, of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, said 
that under Canadian law, health care must be equivalent for people 
inside and outside corrections facilities.

"Anything that moves us closer to that being the reality ... is a 
good thing," said the infectious disease epidemiologist.

Opioid addicts who have been released from prison are at greater risk 
of suffering a fatal overdose, Milloy said. A Washington state-based 
study in The New England Journal of Medicine found opioid-dependent 
people were 12 times more likely to face that risk in the two weeks 
following release, he said.

B.C. Corrections' current policy follows the same guidelines for 
administering suboxone or methadone treatment to opioid addicts as 
set out by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C.

That means any addicted prisoner seeking help can request therapy 
during an appointment with a jail doctor.

Suboxone, which is now listed in the policy as the first line of 
treatment for prisoners, can be dissolved under the tongue in tablet 
form. Methadone is administered as a liquid that's usually mixed with 
orange juice.

An application for injunction and notice of civil claim was filed on 
March 18 as the four prisoners sought therapeutic prescriptions but 
alleged they were repeatedly told they were required to be in custody 
for at least three months before being eligible for treatment.

B.C.'s Ministry of Public Safety has said there is no minimum time or 
length of custodial sentence to start treatment but did not explain 
why the four prisoners were refused therapy.

The ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
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