Watch above: Medical professionals gathered for a two-day conference in Saskatoon to combat opioid abuse. Meaghan Craig finds out what attendees hope to accomplish through opioid substitute therapy.
SASKATOON – Across the country, too many people are dying from drug overdoses and, in some cases, opioids contribute. According to addiction experts, a lot has evolved when it comes to substance use disorders in Saskatchewan.
On Friday, 175 health care workers and physicians attended the start of a two-day conference on opioid substitution therapy in Saskatoon. A conference aimed at providing better information regarding opioids, a class of drugs that share physiological properties and are primarily used to relieve pain.
More than that, the conference is about saving lives according to Dr. Morris Markentin, the medical manager of the methadone program at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
“I think we’re in a opiate-use epidemic, non-prescribed and prescribed.”
They are painkillers used for chronic non-cancer pain, acute pain or end-of-life care for cancer related pain or at times non-medically.
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“We’re talking about your neighbours, everybody. We have a huge HIV epidemic which is being driven partly by IV drug-use but in not only our First Nations but it’s all populations that are effected by opiate abuse,” added Markentin.
While he says the drugs are highly addictive, the addiction is a process of environment, genetics, among other risk factors.
“It’s a combination of the substances and the person. So some people have more risk factors, they’re more vulnerable perhaps, they’re more susceptible,” said Dr. Peter Butt, an associate professor with the department of family medicine at the University of Saskatchewan.
Butt also serves as a consultant to mental health and additions in the Saskatoon Health Region.
“If we’re able to provide treatment to decrease the substance abuse and use then we’re more likely to enhance the health and well being of the individual.”
Butt says that begins with physicians identifying whether or not a prescription has resulted in a deterioration in function rather than an improvement in function. As soon as that’s recognized, physicians must rethink their approach as opposed to throwing more drugs at the patient.
He says urine drug screening is a good safe practice where there is a potential for abuse.
“Being asked to pee in a bottle isn’t an insult, it’s about good safe practice if they’re being prescribed something that might tip them over into a very complicated disordered that frankly nobody wants to have.”
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It can also have deadly consequences. In the last 12 months, fentanyl has been linked to four deaths in the province, according to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health.
“Things are changing, on the street fentanyl is knocking the doors right off the barn,” said Markentin.
“I think this fentanyl we’re seeing on the street is dangerous and people don’t realize it that one dose will kill you and it’s just not safe.”
This is why Butt is calling for kits containing contents to reverse the drug if someone takes too much.
“Naloxone is opioid antagonist. It’s what we used to treat overdoses, for people who have been taking excessive opioids, it reverses the effect, the primary effect is they stop breathing so if you can reserve that it buys you time until the ambulance can arrive,” said Butt.
The kits have proved successful in other jurisdictions and Butt says now that we’re seeing more illicit fentanyl in Saskatchewan, it’s useful to have the kits available here.
“Obviously, you want to get them into treatment but until one can accomplish that it’s useful to have a reversal agent, a Naloxone kit available and people trained to do the injection if they should overdose,” explained Butt.
According to Butt, cost and poor tracking of drug-related deaths in the province are the biggest obstacles to overcome.
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