Alberta has one of the worst rates of opioid poisoning deaths in Canada, with ~7,000 dead since 2016.
Yet AB fiercely resists harm reduction, preferring to focus on addiction treatment.
In my latest piece, I dug into what this really means. 🧵
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-approach-opioid-crisis-1.6750422 #ableg
What experts and advocates told me is that this is not a crisis of addiction, but a public health emergency due to a toxic drug supply.
In other words, people are dying because they don't know what's in their drugs or how strong they are. /2
...and people are indeed dying.
Note that the data is still incomplete for 2022. So while it may look like there's been a big decrease in deaths, other indicators suggest that's not the case.
👉🏻 https://twitter.com/elsthomson/status/1617687613099638785 /4
“Since the province won't release December data for months and when they do, they'll undercount by 29%, we can estimate drug supply toxicity using the reported frequency of overdoses at Safeworks (high: 5.88% in Dec). It should land close to 167: the highest since February 2022.”
So, what to do?
Again, what I have consistently heard from experts and advocates is that the immediate, need-it-yesterday solution is harm reduction, particularly safe supply and safe consumption sites (SCS).
Safe supply means providing pharmaceutical-grade drugs for people to use. SCSs are places where people can come and use drugs in a safe, clean environment with trained staff who can reverse an overdose if one occurs. /5
But Alberta under the UCP isn't having it. Jason Kenney has said it's not "terribly compassionate to facilitate addiction." Marshall Smith has said "a certain shroud of stigma needs to remain around addiction."
Instead, AB has advocated recovery and abstinence. /6
AB is paying millions for addiction treatment beds and spaces, many run by private operators.
But, critics say, that approach is flawed, particuarly because people will continue dying in the meantime, and recovery looks different for everyone. Should a relapse risk death?
It's also worth noting, as @duncankinney reported earlier this week, that BC actually has far more recovery beds than AB — yet BC is also the only province with a higher rate of death from opioids than AB. /7
Now, you might think that there's no way that Albertans would be on board with something like safe supply.
But polling from 2021 showed 63.5% "supported safer supply programs that replace illegal street drugs with pharmaceutical alternatives for those unable to stop using."
When I asked about this, a government spokesperson told me: "Public opinion polling does not dictate government policy." /8
Taylor Lambert