The latest line of defense against the powerful opioid, fentanyl, is causing some controversy amongst health care practitioners. The federal government is looking to make the antidote naloxone, available over the counter since the only way to get it right now is through prescription-based distribution. Some health professionals believe that while this may curb the rate of overdose deaths, others believe it’s enabling users.
The street drug has been related to over 600 deaths in Alberta from 2009 to 2014 according to a study by the Canadian Centre of Substance Abuse. This is something Dr. Richard Buck, Chinook Regional Hospital emergency room physician, has seen all too often.
“Typically the person is not breathing. And when someone isn’t breathing they have no respiratory effort whatsoever and they are pale or sometimes blue. The other thing we see is that their pupils are pinpoint, they’re little dots in their eyes and that’s very classic of what we call an opioid overdose.”
Buck says he started seeing patients presenting to the emergency room with opioid overdoses around two or three years ago. These people had taken a street drug that they were calling oxy-contin. Buck and his colleagues discovered these medications were not oxy-contin. The pills were pressed to look like fake oxy, they were actually high doses of fentanyl, up to 100 times what they would give in the ER for any type of painful procedure.
The front-line physician believes the disbursement of the fentanyl antidote may appear to enable users to some, in his opinion it’s better than the alternative. Death.
Lethbridge HIV Connection is one of just eight sites across the province that are designated by the Alberta government to distribute the naloxone kits to high risk users. Each kit contains two doses of naloxone, syringes, alcohol swabs, gloves, a rescue breathing mask and instructions. Executive director, Stacey Bourque believes the harm reduction method is proving to be successful throughout the province.
“Collectively, we have distributed just over 800 naloxone kits and we’ve had just over 50 overdose reversals, or saves. We’ve dispensed over 50 kits and we’ve had six reported saves.”
For Lethbridge College students, health services is also looking at what can be done to support those struggling with addiction. Harmoni Jones is a registered nurse and team lead for mental health on campus. Jones says that asking for help is the first step in recovery along with a few more pieces of advice.
“Some tips would be, never use alone. Only use in small quantities and also have an emergency contact.”
RCMP are continuing to investigate the source of fentanyl supply both provincially and nationally. Until the supply can be stopped, the take-home harm reduction initiative may be the best hope to reduce the number of fentanyl related deaths in the immediate future.
Registered nurse Harmoni Jones and health services employee, Brittany Minogue, chat about the new fentanyl awareness program on campus on Jan. 18.
