Incarcerated people are often denied access to treatment for opioid use disorder. This October 2016 file photo shows corrections officer opening the door to a cell in the segregation unit at the Fraser Valley Institution for Women in Abbotsford, B.C. during a media tour.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
The election results could mean a national pharmacare program will happen, albeit slowly. Canadians can also expect more safe injection sites and money invested in the opioid crisis.
Research estimates that each year some 15,000 deaths, 90,000 hospital admissions and 240,000 years of life lost are directly attributable to alcohol use.
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Alcohol is classified by the World Health Organization as a Class 1 carcinogen. Our next federal government must step up with an Alcohol Act and a strategy to reduce harms from this recreational drug.
A man injects drugs in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Feb. 6, 2019.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
In the midst of a public health crisis, with increasing rates of death from opioid overdose, the Ontario government is clawing back life-saving measures.
The Chronic Pain Association of Canada has received money from Eli Lilly Canada Inc., Purdue Canada Inc. and Merck Frosst Canada. A blog post on the association’s website contains messages favourable to increased opioid use.
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Cannabis legalization in Canada is a public health strategy. Let’s harness this opportunity to understand how cannabis could fit into a multi-faceted opioid prevention and response strategy.
Thousands of people are dying every year of opioid-related overdoses, in an epidemic that traces its roots to 1996 and the introduction of the prescription drug OxyContin. Here, prescription opioids are shown in Toronto during 2017.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy
Prescription drugs are policed by industry and Health Canada has never prosecuted a drug company for illegally marketing a drug.
Exercise is recommended as an effective non-opioid strategy for non-cancer pain such as fibromyalgia and chronic low back pain. Yet most adults living with chronic pain do not exercise. Or they exercise very little.
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Research shows that exercise offers promise – as an alternative to prescription opioids – for relieving chronic pain.
A woman holds a photo of her best friend, who died of a drug overdose in January 2017, before a march to draw attention to the opioid overdose epidemic, in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, B.C.
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Catastrophic increases in opioid overdose deaths across Canada require a broad response – tackling housing, food and income insecurity as well as the contaminated drug supply.
At present, surgeons vary widely in their approach to opioid prescription and some patients use opioids for prolonged periods post-surgery.
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Surgeons are big prescribers of opioids. But while guidelines are in place for dentists and for doctors who prescribe opioid-based painkillers for long-term pain, there are none for surgeons.
President Donald Trump displays a presidential memorandum he signed, declaring the opioid crisis a public health emergency in the East Room of the White House, Oct. 26, 2017, in Washington.
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Opioids kill an average of eight people every day in Canada. The federal government must officially declare this a ‘public welfare emergency’ and invest the funds critical to a humane response.
As North America’s opioid crisis worsens, schools across Canada are purchasing naloxone anti-overdose kits. Research suggests that risks of opioid addiction could also be addressed through attention to children’s nutrition.
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High fructose corn syrup in food and drinks has long been linked to rising rates of child and teen obesity. New evidence suggests it increases the risks of opioid addiction and overdose too.
There is growing evidence for the use of cannabis in treating opioid addiction.
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As Canada moves towards legalization of cannabis in 2018, there is growing evidence of the drug’s potential to treat opioid addiction itself, as well as the chronic pain that often drives it.
The latest evidence-based treatments for opioid addiction are often under-used, due to inadequate addiction education for doctors and nurses.
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Most physicians are unaware of effective approaches to treat opioid addiction. Addiction medicine fellowships offer a new and effective way to save lives.
The use of more than four medications by one patient is frequent.
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One in five Canadians suffers chronic pain and almost 2,500 died last year from opioid overdose. A National Pain Strategy promises to tackle both problems.