News that Toronto is one big step closer to a long-term safe injection site is most welcome, particularly as this city, like many in North America, grapples with a growing opioid addiction crisis. It's also a reminder of the important work ahead. In the month since a pop-up injection site opened in Moss Park, the volunteer staff has accommodated nearly 2,700 visits and administered 26 doses of naloxone, the antidote to these deadly drugs. As City Councillor Joe Cressy told the Star's David Rider last week, the Moss Park project provides yet further proof that safe-injection sites work and underscores the need for more of them. [continues 346 words]
Up to now, Montreal has largely been spared the worst of the fentanyl crisis that has taken such a horrible toll in Vancouver and certain other parts of Western Canada. But the city's luck is starting to run out. The extremely powerful synthetic opioid is increasingly being found in street drugs in this city. As its presence increases, the result will be sadly predictable: more fatal overdoses by users, many of them unaware of its presence or of its power. [continues 361 words]
Plans are afoot to give the Moss Park "pop-up" safe-injection tent, established by volunteers just over a month ago as an emergency response to overdose deaths, a permanent future in a nearby building. And the city councillor leading Toronto's overdose crisis response foresees similar facilities - where people can safely inject drugs without fear of arrest - in "three or four" other neighbourhoods in addition to the four sites Toronto will have by the end of October. "The experience in Moss Park demonstrates that safe injection saves lives and works," Councillor Joe Cressy said in an interview Friday. [continues 502 words]
Report puts Brantford at top in province for emergency room visits due to opioid poisoning, A report putting Brantford at the top of the provincial list for emergency room visits due to opioid overdoses is a "wake-up call," says Ruth Gratton. "I think this report validates all of the hard work that is being done in the community and will serve as justification for ramping up those efforts," Gratton, manager of infectious disease at the Brant County Health Unit, said Friday. [continues 1187 words]
Democrat Larry Krasner, the front-runner to become Philadelphia's next district attorney, says he supports city-sanctioned spaces where people addicted to heroin can inject drugs under medical supervision and access treatment, a move advocates see as a promising step toward making the city the first in the U.S. to open such a site. His Republican opponent, Beth Grossman, says she's open to discussions on the matter. For those on the front lines of the heroin crisis in Philadelphia, both are encouraging stances in a political arena where the idea can still be dismissed out of hand. But recently, cities across the country have begun to consider the possibility of instituting supervised injection sites; several nations, including Canada, have used the approach for years. [continues 898 words]
Harm reduction is one kind of treatment approach for helping people with substance abuse disorders and it can be confusing for people not familiar with it. "Sometimes people think it's abstinence versus harm reduction but that isn't true," said Laura Chapman, health promotion specialist with Mental Health and Addiction Services. "Harm reduction absolutely includes abstinence." Chapman and many other clinical therapists, counsellors and other professionals working directly with people suffering from substance abuse disorders feel harm reduction is an important tool. [continues 244 words]
Content Warning: drug use and overdose Last week, public health officials in Montreal warned of an imminent fentanyl crisis that poses a serious risk to the city's drug users. Fentanyl is an opioid prescribed to relieve chronic pain, but its intensity is 40 times that of heroin, and its toxicity 100 times that of morphine. Fentanyl can be found in opiates, as well as party drugs such as cocaine, PCP, and MDMA. Because it's often present without the consumer's knowledge, it can easily cause a fatal overdose. In British Columbia, 706 overdose deaths from January to July 2017 involved fentanyl. In Montreal, there have been 24 confirmed drug overdose cases since the beginning of August 2017. Faced with this growing public health crisis, the McGill community must waste no time in supplying the tools and information necessary to keep students safe. [continues 426 words]
Every day, two Canadians die from opioids and this number is steadily increasing. Naloxone is a medication that temporarily suspends opioid overdoses. Free naloxone kits are now available to Ontarians at risk of, or likely to witness, opioid overdoses. This includes youth experimenting with drugs, first-responders, addicts and those managing pain. People living in poverty are especially affected, being more likely to suffer from addiction and less likely to afford the life-saving kits. This is just one small part of Ontario's Strategy to Prevent Opioid Addiction and Overdose, alongside other such measures as delisting high-strength opioids from the Ontario Drug Benefit and expanding the Fentanyl Patch for Patch Program. [continues 330 words]
The provincial health officer is asking B.C. schools to consider buying naloxone The provincial health officer is recommending B.C. schools - including those in Sea to Sky area - obtain the tools to deal with opioid overdoses. A letter sent to superintendents across B.C. said that while schools aren't considered high-risk environments, they are advised to have naloxone kits and train staff to use them. This advisory comes in the midst of what provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall has called a "public health emergency" - the use of fentanyl has been blamed for a sharp increase in the amount of deaths from drug overdoses. [continues 347 words]
Niagara needs a multi-pronged approach to head off the increasing number of people overdosing on opioids like fentanyl, said associate medical officer of health Dr. Mustafa Hirji. As part of that approach, members of Niagara's public health committee voted Tuesday to hire additional staff to implement an enhanced provincial government program that includes outreach services to assist people dealing with opioid addictions, opioid use surveillance, and increased distribution of naloxone kits, paid for with $250,000 in provincial funding. [continues 592 words]
Situation not yet an emergency, Coderre says After meeting with police and public health officials, Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said Tuesday the city is actively preparing to handle a coming opioid crisis. "I was reassured about the status of the situation right now, but clearly it's an anticipated crisis that we have to address and face," Coderre said during a news conference at city hall. The mayor's remarks came days after Montreal's public health department confirmed 12 overdose deaths in the city during the month of August. Another 24 people were saved by the use of naloxone, a medication that can be used to prevent fatal opioid overdoses. [continues 353 words]
The sheer magnitude of Ontario's opioid crisis became tragically clear with last week's revelation that 865 people in this province had died after overdosing on one of these powerful drugs in 2016. To put this heartbreaking figure in perspective, consider that in the same year Ontario recorded 206 homicides while motor vehicle collisions claimed 482 lives, which included 96 alcohol-related deaths. People and politicians are rightly committed to protecting human lives by preventing homicides, making roads safer and cracking down on drunk driving. [continues 392 words]
Chief medical examiner's office pores over deaths in opioid fight EDMONTON - In the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner each morning, medical examiners, investigators, and morgue staff divide the stack of files containing unexplained deaths that have come in from the night before. Five years ago, this department, headquartered in a low-slung grey building in Edmonton, investigated between 1,900 to 2,000 cases a year. But in the last couple of years the caseload has jumped to between 2,500 to 2,600 annually - the bulk of that increase, officials say, is due to fentanyl and other opioid deaths. [continues 1507 words]
Student leaders running the University of Ottawa's orientation week events won't be allowed to administer the opioid antidote naloxone in the event of an overdose because of liability concerns if the injection were to go wrong. Hadi Wess, president of the undergraduate student union that runs the events, said the group initially planned to have about 100 student leaders carry naloxone kits to combat any overdoses that could occur during the parties and events that get under way over the long weekend. The measure was to prepare for the possibility that substances such as the deadly opioid fentanyl could be mixed with other drugs that might be consumed. [continues 474 words]
Student leaders running the University of Ottawa's orientation week events won't be allowed to administer the opioid antidote naloxone in the event of an overdose because of liability concerns if the injection were to go wrong. Hadi Wess, president of the undergraduate student union that runs the events, said the group initially planned to have about 100 student leaders carry naloxone kits to combat any overdoses that could occur during the parties and events that get underway over the long weekend. [continues 241 words]
Awareness day: City police station flags lowered to remember those lost to drugs, alcohol Everyone has a role in battling the stigma that can be even more damaging to addicts than drugs themselves, the medical officer of health said as city police hosted an event to mark International Overdose Awareness Day on Thursday. Directing judgements and negative attitudes towards those suffering from addiction only perpetuate fear and avoidance, and as a result, poorer outcomes for them, said Dr. Rosana Salvaterra of Peterborough Public Health. [continues 453 words]
When Jennifer Howard lost her son Robert Cunningham to a fentanyl overdose in May 2016 at age 24, she was devastated. After learning he had hid his heroin use, and had been using for only seven months before his death, she began to realize how widespread drug overdoses are in B.C. Howard, who helped organize Thursday's International Overdose Awareness Day event at Centennial Square, was among hundreds of people from all walks of life who had a good reason for being there. [continues 341 words]
Advocate sees a role for public health nurses in fighting opioid crisis in rural communities The opioid crisis in St. John's is far from over, and a community advocate wants to see changes. "We see people every day who are at risk," said Tree Walsh, the harm reduction manager at the Safe Works Access Program (SWAP) for the AIDS Committee of Newfoundland and Labrador. "We're trying to save lives, and we're trying to prevent deaths, but as soon as the pharmaceutical supply of opioids dries up, which is happening now things are going to get so much worse." [continues 559 words]
Perth District Health Unit highlights harm reduction for drug users Nearly a year after the Perth District Health Unit (PDHU) began offering free Naloxone kits to residents in Stratford and across Perth County, the harm reduction benefits for opioid users are quite clear. Naloxone, more commonly referred to by its brand name Narcan, can be administered as a nasal spray and is used to stop overdoses. At the PDHU's Festival Square office at 10 Downie St. in Stratford, staff have been giving away kits containing two doses of Narcan each to opioid users, their friends, relatives or caregivers who feel they or their loved ones are at risk of overdosing. [continues 791 words]
Gov. Chris Christie is growing impatient with the Trump administration over its delay in declaring the opioid epidemic a national emergency. Christie said during an interview with MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes on Tuesday night that too many lives are being lost to drug overdoses for a formal declaration to wait any longer. "I think it's time for the president and White House staff to get on this and for the president to demand that they get the papers in front of him so he can sign it," Christie said. [continues 454 words]
Urged to declare an emergency, province promises "significant resources and supports" The opioid drug crisis flaring up in Southwestern Ontario is becoming so bad across the province, hundreds of doctors, nurses and others are pushing Queen's Park to declare an emergency. In an open letter to Premier Kathleen Wynne Monday, the health workers say limited resources and poor data are preventing them from responding properly to a disturbing, sustained increase in overdoses. "The consequences have been clear: lives lost, families destroyed and harm reduction and health care worker burnout," they write. [continues 794 words]
Cheryl Guardiero should have spent Thursday celebrating her son's 30th birthday. Instead, she attended an International Overdose Awareness Day vigil in Nanaimo, her boy now among the dead for whom they grieved. Brett Colton Mercer was born in Nanaimo on Aug. 31, 1987, to loving parents who eventually had five children. He died Aug. 19, 2017 of an accidental drug overdose, alone in a motel room in Hope, where he had recently landed a job with an oil and gas firm. [continues 812 words]
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. [continues 428 words]
Hundreds of health-care workers are urging the province to call the recent spate of opioid overdoses and deaths across Ontario by a different name. More than 700 front-line workers want the province to declare a state of emergency over the opioid crisis, in hopes that the urgent classification will boost funding for front-line workers, open up more overdose prevention and safe-injection sites and increase support and treatment programs for drug users. Whether or not the province chooses to declare the epidemic an emergency, it must start treating it as one immediately. [continues 326 words]
'People are dying in Northern Ontario and in our community with regularity' from opioids Drug deaths are now happening at an alarming pace in Sudbury. "It's not just in Vancouver," said Lisa Toner, community outreach coordinator with the Reseau Access Network. "People are dying in Northern Ontario and in our community with regularity. It's not once a month - it's weekly, is my experience this summer." Toner, who has worked in addictions outreach for a decade, said her sense of the escalating crisis has lately been confirmed by people in the city's medical field. [continues 875 words]
Province stops short of declaring public-health emergency, which more than 700 health-care workers called for in an open letter The Ontario government is promising extra money to fight the opioid crisis after more than 700 health-care workers called on the province to use emergency planning measures to address a spike in overdoses. "It is clear that more needs to be done," Premier Kathleen Wynne in a statement on Monday, vowing to commit "significant" additional resources to address the crisis. [continues 682 words]
Niagara is not immune to opioid use. Opiods are being used all over the region, not just in areas with lowincome housing and high crime rates. According to Positive Living executive director Glen Walker, hard drugs such as fentanyl aren't only a problem in larger municipalities such as St. Catharines and Niagara Falls, places such as Fort Erie and Welland also have many users, part of an epidemic across Niagara. "We have a lot of work to do," Walker says. [continues 823 words]
City's death rate among the highest An Ontario report warns Hamilton shows signs of having among the highest illicit opioid use in the province. It also flags a potential lack of addiction treatment services here compared to the high death rates found by the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network. Its alert comes at the same time that city data shows July had the highest number of opioid-related 911 calls so far this year. "Hamilton has stood out as having one of the higher death rates in the province," said Tara Gomes, a scientist at St. Michael's Hospital and the lead author of the report. [continues 581 words]
Ottawa says it has no plans to consider decriminalizing hard drugs, such as heroin, despite calls from local politicians, health officials and experts who argue such radical action is needed to combat the overdose epidemic that first hit British Columbia and is now a national crisis. Vancouver's mayor became the latest person to advocate for this shift in drug policy after new statistics showed his city had already surpassed last year's overdose death toll of 231 people. But a spokesperson for federal Health Minister Jane Philpott says Canada is focused on legalizing cannabis not decriminalizing other, more deadly illicit drugs. [continues 686 words]
Mayor Jim Watson is more concerned about votes and public reaction than drug-use management in his criticism of a pop-up supervised injection site in a Lowertown park, says one of the site's organizers. "Well, he's a politician; what can I say?" said Rick Sproule, who's with Overdose Prevention Ottawa. "He's concerned about votes, that's what he's concerned about. He's not a healthcare professional, he has no expertise in the field whatsoever." On Tuesday, Watson said that injection-site organizers, while well intentioned, weren't being fair to the community and had "taken over" the park. [continues 398 words]
Local agencies supporting those suffering from the opioid crisis used International Overdose Day on Thursday as an opportunity to bring attention to the issue. The opioid crisis is no longer an issue just for large cities. The Kingston area, as well as some villages north of the city, have overdose numbers that are aso concerning. For example, Overdose Day was marked in Sharbot Lake as well as Kingston. On Thursday morning, the Kingston Community Health Centres' Street Health Centre held a news conference to mark the occasion. [continues 920 words]
Community marks International Overdose Awareness Day for first time A total of 48 opioid-related deaths have been reported in Chatham-Kent between 2005 and 2016, according to Public Health Ontario, but it's likely that number is higher. Jordynne Lindsay, a registered nurse with the Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit, believes the number of local deaths could be under-reported due to a difference in the coding used by the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance emergency department, Chatham-Kent EMS and Chatham-Kent police. [continues 512 words]
Event aims to break stigma around overdose and drug use About 75 Cape Bretoners gathered at Wentworth Park Bandshell on Thursday to pay tribute to loved ones who died by drug overdose or who are struggling with addiction. Tears flowed and people could be heard quietly sobbing and sniffing during the Overdose Awareness Day event, especially when the names of people who died of drug overdoses were being called out. Antoinette Murphy, who lost her son to an overdose five months ago, was there with her three daughters and a granddaughter. [continues 545 words]
For the past several months, a group of frontline workers, illicit-drug users and parents have met to discuss how they can better inform the public on the one thing that unites them: The overdose crisis. "It's such a diverse mix of people, but we've all been affected," said Leslie McBain, a founding member of Moms Stop the Harm. She lost her only son, Jordan Miller, to an opioid overdose in 2014. She has helped support other parents and has become a respected advocate at all levels of government. [continues 699 words]
Temporary clinic has been open for a week in building at Victoria and Dundas Sts. It has been nearly one week since Toronto opened its first city-run site for people to use illegal intravenous drugs and, so far, three dozen people have used the controversial service. "We are thrilled to be offering this life-saving service to the community," Dr. Rita Shahin, Toronto Public Health's associate medical officer of health, said Saturday. "The very first client that we had when we opened our doors, to us, represents a potential life that we may have saved. We had 36 visits in just five days, which . . . represents a great success. We look forward to more people becoming aware of the service and helping more people in our community." [continues 560 words]
Sandy Hill centre lot offered to supervised-injection group The Sandy Hill Community Health Centre has temporarily offered its parking lot to an unsanctioned "popup" group as the centre tries to move up the opening date of its own federally approved supervised injection site. Pop-up tents were set up by Overdose Prevention Ottawa (OPO) in Raphael Brunet Park near the ByWard Market on Friday, with organizers calling it an emergency response to the rising number of overdoses in Ottawa. Lisa Wright, a spokeswoman for Overdose Prevention Ottawa, said the organization would stick with its current plan for now. But Wright said it would consult its members next week as to whether they wanted to move to the new location at the community centre. [continues 340 words]
Advocates say they can't wait any longer and will open a safe-injection location Drug users are dying while politicians fill out forms and wait for approvals for supervised injection sites, says a group promising to open a guerrilla injection tent of its own somewhere in Ottawa Friday. Overdose Prevention Ottawa, which has only existed for a matter of days, is taking the delicate political compromises that have let harm-reduction efforts lurch forward here and kicking them aside. Because waiting is costing lives, the group says. [continues 1487 words]
The push for legal harm reduction requires breaking the law. That was the chatter Friday down at the pop-up safe-injection site in Lowertown. And it's true. With the big black tent in the background of Raphael Brunet Park, volunteers prepared for what they expected to be a busy evening. Boxes of fruit snacks and flats of Costco water sat nearby. Some people moseyed through, grabbing a doughnut and cup of coffee and asking what was going on. Things that are illegal don't tend to become legal until people realize the consequences aren't as grave as they fear. More to the point, perhaps, with something like harm reduction and drug use, things don't tend to become legal until everyone realizes that it was criminality in the first place that made an activity dangerous. [continues 547 words]
Overdose awareness event equal parts memorial and educational The Ally Centre of Cape Breton is hosting an event for International Overdose Awareness Day to remember those lost to overdose and bring awareness to the opioid crisis on the island. "Each year we try to make an impact, somehow, to draw attention to overdose and the effect it's having on our communities," explained Christine Porter, executive director of the Ally Centre. From 2008-2016, there have been 169 overdose deaths in CapeBreton. [continues 602 words]
A good first step It may be temporary and jerry-rigged and running on reduced hours, but Toronto finally has its first safe injection site up and running. Kudos go to both Toronto Public Health for announcing the initiative last week and Ottawa for fast-tracking approval for the location. The site at Victoria and Dundas Sts. opened its doors on Monday afternoon. It will be staffed by two nurses, two counsellors and a manager to ensure that addicts have a safe, sterile place to inject illegal drugs and don't die from an overdose. [continues 416 words]
Nearly two years after it was first announced, a sweeping inquest into drug deaths at an Ontario correctional facility has been scheduled to begin in January. The highly anticipated probe, which will examine the drug-related deaths of eight male inmates of the Hamilton Wentworth Detention Centre between 2012 and 2016, is set to be one of the largest-scale inquests in the province's history. It is scheduled to begin Jan. 2 and last about 30 days. The goal of an inquest is to identify ways to prevent similar deaths in the future. Thousands of people are dying across Canada each year in an opioid crisis - bringing added urgency to the perennial issue of drugs in correctional facilities. Four inmates died of suspected overdoses at the Hamilton jail since the inquest was announced in August, 2015. [continues 748 words]
A conspiracy hypothesis must surely be tested regarding the carnage currently inflicted by street fentanyl and its weaponized derivative, carfentanil. Simply stated, drug dealing is a business. No entrepreneur is going to deliberately contaminate product so that it kills the customers. Suspicion must be entertained that some organization with ulterior motives is deliberately contaminating the street drug supply. Opioid and stimulant injectors are the main target. The possibility of tainted street marijuana (Get naloxone, pot users urged, Aug. 4) pales by comparison. Now more than ever, the adage rings true that illegal drugs are not dangerous because they're illegal, they're illegal because they are dangerous. Harm reduction efforts are laudable but they are failing to stop the purge. Jamie Harris London [end]
Downtown site a good start, but advocates want more done to tackle opioid crisis Health Canada has approved the immediate opening of a downtown supervised safe injection site to combat the opioid crisis in Toronto, but it's not nearly enough, according to one of the founders of an unsanctioned pop-up site at Moss Park. "It's not a crisis response," registered nurse Leigh Chapman said in an interview. "I think it's great that they have accelerated the opening of the sanctioned safe injection sites," Chapman said, adding that it would be useful for the site to have extended hours. "It would be great if they could expand their hours and have much longer hours than we have," Chapman said. [continues 321 words]
Spike in Winnipeg drug overdoses - including opioids The number of annual drug overdoses in Winnipeg is on the rise. Data from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) show that emergency crews are responding to more overdoses, with 1,648 patients arriving with a drug overdose complaint at emergency rooms and urgent care facilities during the first seven months of this year. There were 2,565 such calls throughout 2016, up from 1,981 in 2014. And Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) responded to 1,185 poisoning and overdose calls in 2017 (as of July 31), 1,803 in 2016 and 1,328 in 2014. Both agencies note alcohol is responsible for many cases. [continues 401 words]
Harm reduction workers follow correct belief relationships more important than rules Eight days of silence gives one sufficient time to engage in some of the contemplation and reading necessary for moving about more wisely in this world with our ever-increasing set of wicked problems. It also provides the space for taking in a book or three, a practice I neglect during my routinized day to day. So I have returned home from my retreat richer than ever, gleaning wisdom from both the silent and the written word. [continues 626 words]
Canada is in the grip of an unprecedented opioid crisis. An estimated 2,458 Canadians died of opioid-related overdose deaths in 2016 - more than the national count of motor-vehicle accident and homicide deaths combined. British Columbia reported 967 (mainly opioid) drug-overdose fatalities in 2016, and is on track for 1,500 in 2017. Alberta and Ontario have also seen substantial increases. Numerous interventions have been discussed and initiated recently - yet, the number of deaths continue to rise. Part of this deadly stalemate relates to the fact that, underlying the opioid crisis are two paradoxically linked challenges - neither of which are adequately understood or addressed by current responses. On the one hand, a substantial portion of the present crisis is due to years of systemic and non-evidence based overprescribing, which put too many people, for too long, on too high doses, of opioid drugs. To counter this, excessive opioid prescribing levels have to be substantially reduced in order to prevent even more Canadians being exposed to opioid misuse, dependence and undue death. These sensible reductions in harmful opioid prescribing at the individual and population level are the central objective of newly tabled Canadian prescription guidelines. [continues 655 words]
Halfway through 2017, Fort McMurray is already nearing its year-end total for fentanyl overdose deaths last year, according to an Alberta Health report released Wednesday. A total of eight people have died from fentanyl overdoses in the first six months of 2017, compared to nine fentanyl overdose deaths over the whole of 2016. The report, Opioids and Substances of Misuse, shows that in the second quarter of 2017, a total of 119 people died in Alberta from apparent fentanyl-related drug overdoses, compared to 85 overdoses over the same period in 2016. [continues 351 words]
Psst. Pass the word along. Much like the warning at the '60s Woodstock concert to avoid the brown acid, authorities are warning today's recreational drug users to carry naloxone kits in case their drugs are laced with fentanyl. "We're alerting recreational drug users that the MDMA (ecstasy) or cocaine they're taking could be tainted with fentanyl," said Janice Greco, manager of injury and substance misuse prevention at the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU). Greco is sounding the alarm after the health unit was warned of a spike in overdoses between Aug. 9 and Aug. 13 by its surveillance program at Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH). [continues 582 words]
After a wave of overdose deaths, Toronto public health officials are scrambling to open interim supervised drug-use sites, including one in a harm-reduction clinic near Yonge-Dundas Square that could be operating within days. The move, announced by the city's medical officer of health on Monday, comes after volunteer front-line workers and activists set up a controversial pop-up supervised drug-use site in an east-end park. The group, calling itself the Toronto Harm Reduction Alliance, says the city has been dragging its feet in responding to the opioid crisis. [continues 600 words]
British Columbia recorded 935 deaths due to drug overdoses in 2016 and the number is projected to surpass 1,400 by the end of 2017. Approaches to this epidemic include the antidote Naloxone, injection sites, education etc. These are fine, but do not address the real problem, which is reducing drug availability by reducing the number of dealers and suppliers. Singapore has enacted laws which include capital punishment for dealers and suppliers of illicit drugs. Draconian, yes, but if we as a society have to choose between the deaths of dealers who knowingly destroy lives and families, or deaths of thousands of our young adults, the decision is a no-brainer. [continues 135 words]
