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B.C. doctors can more easily prescribe Suboxone

Click to play video: 'Overdose drugs now easier to get'
Overdose drugs now easier to get
WATCH: In the wake of the epidemic of drug overdose deaths in BC, the government and doctors are making it easier for people to access a drug that is proven to save lives. Linda Aylesworth reports. – Jul 6, 2016

VANCOUVER – The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia is relaxing its regulations covering access to a drug that can help treat heroin addiction.

On its website, the college says physicians no longer need a special exemption to prescribe Suboxone or its generic versions.

Paperwork linked to prescribing the drug is also being scaled back, with the college announcing it will no longer keep a central registry of patients in the methadone program.

It means doctors won’t have to submit patient registration, transfer, and cessation forms when prescribing Suboxone, but must still check a patient’s previous drug history before starting opioid treatment.

Click to play video: 'Can Suboxone help with B.C.’s drug overdose crisis?'
Can Suboxone help with B.C.’s drug overdose crisis?

WATCH: Dr. Keith Ahamad, of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDs speaks to BC1 about a new report he co-authored, calling for Suboxone to be more widely available to treat opioid addiction, and to address BC’s drug overdose crisis.

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The changes, made in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, took effect July 1.

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Suboxone has been covered under B.C.’s PharmaCare program since October 2015 and the Canadian Research Initiative on Substance Misuse says it is a promising opiate replacement therapy that has been proven to decrease overdose deaths.

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