Pubdate: Sat, 16 Apr 2016
Source: Prince George Citizen (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Prince George Citizen
Contact:  http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/350
Author: Tamsyn Burgmann
Page: 7

PRISONERS NOW ELIGIBLE FOR ADDICTIONS TREATMENT

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.
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