Group says overdose numbers worse than recent police report
By Gillian Slade on September 27, 2018.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com @MHNGillianSlade The number of drug overdoses and related deaths in Medicine Hat are considerably more than those the Medicine Hat Police Service responded to and reported this week, says HIV Community Link, the organization tasked with establishing a local supervised consumption site. In a recent eight-week period there have been 32 overdoses and seven of those resulted in death, said Leslie Hill, executive director HIV Community Link. Of the seven deaths, five occurred in a 10-day period at the end of August and beginning of September. “That’s just the numbers that we’re aware of,” said Hill. “This is (from) reports that people have brought to us.” This week MHPS reported nine overdoses and two deaths that they’d responded to in one month ending Sept. 24. Hill calls the increase “dramatic” when compared to last year’s seven deaths from overdoses in the whole year. The year before there had been only two. “We know this year there is a huge escalation and that that’s continuing to escalate,” she said. The numbers can be fairly stable at times, Hill said, who added the number spikes when drugs with a higher level of toxicity move through the city. Crystal meth is still the most common street drug in Medicine Hat and that has been largely dictated by supply, but street-based fentanyl is also being laced into crystal meth and other substances, she explained. “Fentanyl is shipped into Canada in powder form and then traffickers mix it with other substances and binding agents … They might press it into pills and market it as oxycontin … or it gets sold as fentanyl…” said Hill. This mix and production of street drugs, often in a kitchen or garage, is not consistent so users don’t know what they’re really getting and in what amount, she explained. A drug user may think they’ve bought crystal meth but it may actually be mostly fentanyl. “That’s particularly dangerous … because they have the opposite effect,” said Hill. One is a stimulant and the other a depressant, putting the user at risk for an overdose, she explained. One of the main purposes of supervised consumption is to help prevent overdoses. There are also other services to address the crisis on a number of levels. Medicine Hat’s residential treatment detoxification facility, the Medicine Hat Recovery Centre that opened in March 2016, is seeing clients with increasingly complex needs, manager Debbie Vass told the News this week. Some are homeless, in financial difficulty, unemployed, have lost the support of family and friends, are isolated, are dealing with medical issues, dental issues, sexually transmitted infections, post traumatic stress disorder and mental health problems. Detoxing alone does not address these other contributing factors. Rita Duren, Alberta Health Services director of addiction and mental health services for Medicine Hat, says a number of provincially funded programs have already been initiated to address this at the Medicine Hat Recovery Centre. There is now an on-site psychiatrist and a harm reduction specialist. Reducing the stigma attached to drugs is also a key factor in addressing the situation comprehensively, said AHS medical officer of health Dr. Lena Derie-Gillespie. 18
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