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OTTAWA – Katrina Adams has been contemplating tattooing all of her friends who have died from an opioid overdose in the past two years, but she does not think she has enough room for all of her names.
The 27-year-old has photos of many of them in her Ottawa apartment, as well as pictures of her two children.
Opioid addiction leads to daily Russian roulette, she said. The supply of street drugs is unpredictable, a mix of different chemicals of different powers. The Ottawa police recently badyzed a sample of the product sold as heroin and discovered that it did not contain heroin – it was extremely potent fentanyl mixed with fillers.
Adams knows from experience that she overdosed seven times, including during her last pregnancy.
"There is no way of saying what you take from one day to the next," said Adams. "I'm dead, I'm out of the way."
Adams said she had found new hope, however, thanks to a program in Ottawa where she could take intravenous hydromorphone – an opioid known in the trade as Dilaudid – until To seven times a day, which had been prescribed to him by a doctor. Participants live in a building located in a neighborhood in the west of downtown where they can receive regular medical care and support.
"I'm not sitting in an alley … I got puddles and drugs that I do not know where they come from," Adams said. "While safe injection sites have saved lives because they are there to respond to overdose, these safe injection sites have no way of preventing the overdose itself."
Dr. Jeffrey Turnbull, former Chief of Staff at The Ottawa Hospital and President of the Canadian Medical Association, who has been working closely with the homeless population of the city for 20 years, is instrumental in this program. It started about a year ago while Ottawa was facing the enormity of the opioid epidemic, with many daily overdoses and frequent deaths, and it was not long before it started. addressed to users of opioids presenting an exceptional risk.
"They used opioid drugs by injection, but that's all the poison contained in heroin that placed them at even higher risk – fentanyl, carfentanil, new metabolites," he said. he declares.
"We had the feeling that if we could eliminate the drug problem, its crime, the risk of a stockpile of poison drugs, stabilize the madness of their lives … then we could start working on their other medical and mental health problems. . "
The Public Health Agency of Canada has released new data this month showing that more than 3,200 Canadians have died from an apparent opioid-related overdose between January and September – a window into the future. Epidemic throughout the country, particularly in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. despite government interventions.
The federal agency also reported that fentanyl and other fentanyl-related substances continue to play a major role in the opioid crisis in Canada, with 73% of deaths resulting from opioid overdoses occurring accidentally during the reporting period. nine months.
The increase in deaths has prompted many health experts, including the health official in the province of British Columbia, to urge the federal government to find ways to provide more opioid medications. sure – a path explored by the country's medical director, Dr. Theresa Tam, and Minister of Health Ginette Petitpas. Taylor
The latest federal budget proposes funding of $ 30.5 million over five years, starting this year, for targeted efforts to address "persistent harm reduction gaps" and treatment.
"Specifically, the funding will support efforts to expand access to a safe supply of prescription opioids," the report says.
Conservative health spokeswoman Marilyn Gladu said the search for a secure supply focuses on the wrong things.
"I think they need to look for a more comprehensive solution that combines prevention and recovery," she said. "I think people have compbadion for drug addicts, but we need to rid them of drugs."
It is essential to decriminalize and medically regulate supplies to save lives, said New Democrat Health Critic Don Davies.
"The problem, if we call it, is that there is a poisonous and poisoned refueling," he said.
Davies notes that the number of deaths caused by opioids is increasing every year. "Does this tell you that the political response (of the Liberal government) works? This is not. "
As political discussions continue, the crisis continues.
The reason for being the Adams program is similar to that of an alcohol management program in place in Ottawa for nearly 20 years, which Turnbull also helped launch. Participants live in a building run by an accommodation center and receive wine rations once an hour. When they do not always think about finding their next drink and they can not stuff themselves, they can take care of other things.
Studies have shown that people with severe alcoholic disorders who participate in such programs – there are different versions in every city in the country – have fewer visits to the hospital and fewer problems with the law than those who are not.
It would be a "game changer" to think about making opioids safe available via different channels, based on user needs, Turnbull said. He believes that Canada needs to have a broader discussion about whether it is on the right track in its overdose efforts.
"I think we will have to think seriously about the drug policy in this country in the face of an epidemic that kills more people than road accidents and suicides," he said. "It is very difficult for the police to get out of this problem and we will really rethink the way we manage drugs and our conception of drug use crime."
Drug addiction is accelerating to the point that drug use ceases to be a choice, Adams said.
She added that expanding access to safe medications would help opioid users like her to see what they are capable of: rebuilding relationships, working on jobs and being able to make an appointment.
"It may seem like little things in the grand scheme of things, but for us it's huge," she said. "We are becoming active members of society again."
– Follow @kkirkup on Twitter
Kristy Kirkup, Canadian Press
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