Roy Greene has addressed this issue repeatedly and in depth and has interviewed, on the radio with pain specialists (who are willing to talk publicly) and those who are not for fear of losing their licenses and other individuals who are involved in prescribing these pain medications and authorities and they will all tell you the same thing. While there may be SOME prescription drugs involved, MOST of the deaths due to opioids are from illegally sourced drugs.
It is extremely disingenuous to say that MOST deaths are caused by prescribed drugs because that is factually wrong! Ask any Border agent about how much "fentanyl" has been captured trying to come into our country and they'll tell you that they only get a small portion of what is coming into the country, mostly from China.
In the meantime, the people who actually need these opioids and who have tried everything else before even getting them prescribed, are suffering because doctors are no longer prescribing them which has left them in extreme pain - pain that nothing else will relieve.
Insofar as prescribed opioids, since most (if not all) doctors won't prescribe them anymore because their Medical Associations will take their licenses, why is it that these so-called prescribed drugs are supposedly still killing? It's because they're not. It's the crap that is being imported that is doing the killing. Doctors have not been prescribing these pills for at least 2 years now and I hear that the situation is only becoming worse. How is that happening?
So, the politicians and medical associations have completely missed the mark on all these deaths and have, in fact, condemned those who need these medications to a life of constant and extreme pain simply because people on the street are dying. It's all well and good to try to do something about these deaths but putting one segment of our society over another is not the way to do it.
The whole thing has been handled badly by those who have jumped to conclusions and refuse to take the advice of the people who actually know what they're talking about.
JMHO
Yes- Dixie- HOID is a spectacularly NASTY LIE-beral propaganda spreader!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One has only to read about the Opiod crisis on a typical native reserve to understand how badly LIE-berals are failing us all!!!!!!!!!!!
As the article I posted below describes- there seems to be NO EFFORT on the part of cops to trace where or how native addicts are getting their "prescription"s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Corrupt doctors???????????????????
Bribery??????????????????????????
Intimidation???????????????????????????
LIE-berals DO NOT consider it worth spending THEIR GRAVY on any solutions or real investigations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LIE-berals want to BUY VOTES- not argue with drug addicts about dangerous habits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Officials declare state of emergency over drug crisis on Stoney Nakoda First Nation.
By Michele Jarvie, Postmedia. First posted: Sunday, July 24, 2016 07:10 PM EDT | Updated: Monday, July 25, 2016 11:26 AM EDT
(With some comments of my own in brackets):
Topic: The opioid crisis. The three First Nations bands near Morley are in a crisis situation over extremely high rates of prescription drug addictions and overdoses among members. With addiction rates surging as high as 60% among adult members of the reserve, Stoney Nakoda has declared a state of emergency.
(How can people be referred to as a `nation` when the `national` income is almost entirely welfare money sent over from another `nation`?)
“We had something like 139 deaths attributed to opiates within a two-year period on the nation,” said Lindsay Blackett, CEO of the Chiniki band, one of three that comprise Stoney Nakoda. “There’s only 6,000 people on the whole reserve so that’s a significant number vis-à-vis the population.”
He said fentanyl is the No. 1 culprit on the reserve — the same deadly drug that is devastating communities across Canada. More than 270 Albertans died from fentanyl overdoses last year with at least 20 deaths on the southern Blood Reserve alone since the summer of 2014.
A prescription painkiller, fentanyl is up to 100 times more potent than morphine and is often passed off as a new form of OxyContin. “A lot of people are abusing it. And once you’re hooked, that’s a jealous mistress. Once it hooks you, it wrecks your life,” said Blackett.
“It’s not a reflection on one particular community. It’s not like we’re the only ones dealing with it. It’s widespread and not just in the native population. It’s just more pronounced in the native population.” Blackett noted the opiate crisis is just part of a larger drug and alcohol challenge being faced on the reserve.
Health Canada officials say they have been working with First Nations’ chiefs and administration and the Alberta government to support the communities and address complex issues of mental illness and suicide, addictions, chronic disease and improve access to quality health care.
(There is no practical way to improve access to health care on tiny reserves when Ontari-owe LIE-berals are closing hospitals in moderate sized CITIES! And LIE-berals were caught lying about how many hospitals were actually closed! But not to worry- the money saved was spent on Muslim `invaders` crossing our borders!)
On June 17, federal Health Minister Jane Philpott announced new actions to address opioid misuse, which includes better prescribing practices and treatment options, reducing easy access to unnecessary opioids and improving the national evidence base.
Health Canada funds $86 million annually for addictions support for First Nations and Inuit communities through the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program and the National Youth Solvent Abuse Program. Through these programs, a network of 43 treatment centres is supported, as well as drug and alcohol prevention services in the majority of First Nations and Inuit communities.
Alberta Health Minister Sarah Hoffman says the province has been working with First Nations on responding to the fentanyl crisis, with addictions treatment and education. Government officials are also sharing electronic data to help First Nations roll out immunization programs.
(What does child immunization have to do with adults being a drugged up mess?)
“We know that First Nations peoples are struggling with higher rates of diabetes, addictions and poverty — all of which contribute to poorer health outcomes.”
(Drugged up addicts just don’t have a proper work ethic! Nor do they eat well since drugs and alcohol take up so much of their budget! Perhaps LIE-berals can somehow BUY a solution for them?)
The high number of addicted adults on the Morley-area reserve is anecdotal at best as actual numbers are not known. Prescription opioid addiction numbers are not tracked, nor are deaths unless they are related to fentanyl — a drug that appeared on the streets in 2012 and has become the single-largest public health threat in Alberta.
(I say this lack of `numbers` indicates that some activists and poverty pimps DON’T WANT to `find` the numbers. Some appear worried that respect for natives will plummet if the extent of their addictions and troubles are fully known. Others appear concerned that full disclosure of troubles will result in White Govt taking away much of the power and authority of band councils and imposing decisions on bands in order to force more responsible govt into place-a course of action that IS desperately needed!)
(The spectacle of Atiwapiskat Chief Teresa Spence refusing to discuss how she and her political allies burned through ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS of govt money in five years without using a penny to build the housing that the cash was earmarked for-AND without being able to show a single receipt for all that cash-while band members lived in tents and shacks in the Arctic winter is a thing that leaves a BAD TASTE in the mouths of many Cdn tax payers!)
“We really do a poor job on surveillance of opioid overdose deaths and that’s a good way to measure addictions,” said Alberta addictions specialist Hakique Virani. “We don’t count it unless it’s fentanyl. Until we do that, we don’t have a handle on numbers.”
Virani was not surprised by the suggestion that 50 to 60% of Stoney Nakoda residents are prescription addicts. In fact, he suspects the number is higher in the adult population.
Asked how people can repeatedly get drugs prescribed, sometimes for years at a time, Virani said it often happens because no one asks questions. Or they’re ill-equipped to deal with the fallout.
(Or perhaps some drug company sales people and doctors are simply committing criminal acts by supplying drugged up natives and profiting nicely from it?)
“The patient may not even be complaining of anything wrong. When doctors inherit patients with prescription addictions, often they’ll just perpetually refill it because there may not be any complaint of side-effects.
(Or are some doctors being THREATENED if they do not refill the prescriptions? Doctors are sworn to “do no harm” and simply handing out drugs with no questions asked sounds a lot like harm and blackmail to me!)
“Even if they are demonstrating signs of dependency, would the best thing be to cut them off? No,” said Virani, who treats patients at an Edmonton methadone clinic and teaches at the University of Alberta. He has been critical of the government’s handling of the fentanyl drug crisis.
(What? Cutting off the supply of a dangerous drug is a BAD thing? How?)
“It’s a difficult dilemma. It is dangerous to keep prescribing but in the absence of safe and effective treatment for dependency, what do you do?”
(Its especially difficult to treat people who insist on staying in the same miserable, corrupt conditions that originally persuaded them to chemically alter their mood!)
Treatment for prescription opiate drug addiction includes stabilizing patients with other long-acting medications such as methadone or Suboxone. Counseling for underlying issues is also needed or more advanced therapy for psychiatric or psychological trauma.
(But of course there is no such handy stabilization option on benighted reserves!)
But methadone and Suboxone can be dangerous medications so use of them requires following monitoring protocols, which can be difficult to do in remote areas or First Nations reserves with limited access to health clinics and doctors.
“It’s unfortunately not a unique situation for First Nations in Alberta, it’s not a unique situation for some towns in Alberta. An entire provincial problem is poor access to treatment. And it’s not changing near fast enough.”
Virani said Alberta needs to rethink how local practitioners are supported. He pointed to a project that is working well in Slave Lake, where the province partnered with First Nations bands to provide telemedicine in co-operation with practitioners on site.
(One obvious obstacle to such a solution is GETTING practitioners on site! Natives who have the drive and determination to BECOME practitioners often are reluctant to return to the mess they worked so hard to escape! And they certainly would not want to bring their children to live in such an isolated and messed up place! If past news reports are correct then it is often unsafe for even armed police officers after dark in the worst off reserves in times of crisis!)
“If we’re creative and committed to addressing this problem, we can do it. Until we accept it’s a public health emergency, we’ll continue to bail out a sinking ship with a spoon.”