Opioid issues rampant in south

By Gillian Slade on August 16, 2018.

gslade@medicinehatnews.com  @MHNGillianSlade

The south zone leads the province by far when it comes to pharmacies dispensing methadone and in the number of emergency department visits due to opioids, says an Alberta Health report.

Methadone and buprenorphine are administered under medical supervision as a long-term treatment for those dealing with an addiction to opioids.

This region, which includes Medicine Hat and Lethbridge, has been almost doubling its dispensing rate of methadone and buprenorphine for each of the past three years. In 2017/18 it was 106 per cent higher than the provincial average, according to the Alberta Health Opioids and Substances of Misuse report for the first quarter of 2018.

“The government recognizes the opioid crisis continues to have a devastating impact on families and communities across Alberta,” said Dr. Karen Grimsrud, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health and co-chair of the Health Minister’s opioid emergency response commission.

“Our work to support people affected by substance use is a priority, and we are working to save lives by increasing free naloxone kit distribution, opening 4,000 new treatment spaces through clinics and telehealth, and providing supervised consumption services.

“We know these interventions are making a difference to many Albertans, and we are working closely with service providers and people with lived experience on a targeted, comprehensive strategy to save lives from the opioid crisis.”

The number of emergency room visits related to opioid use and substance misuse was 25 per cent higher in the south zone (312 visits for 100,000 person years) compared to the provincial average (250 visits for 100,000 person years), according to the report. It should be noted this is the whole of the south zone, including Lethbridge.

The average rate of hospitalization due to opioid use was also the highest in the south zone, by 26 per cent compared to the rest of the province in 2017, says the report.

The number of apparent accidental opioid poisoning deaths related to any opioid also continues to climb in the south zone. In 2016, there were 30 deaths and that number climbed to 43 in 2017, the report says. Data for 2018 is not available yet.

Looking at the number of deaths from only fentanyl, there is a steady increase across the province, and the south zone is no exception.

There were 14 deaths in the south zone in 2016, and 31 in 2017. There were 12 in just the first quarter of 2018 — on pace for 48 this year.

In 2015 there were 257 fentanyl-related deaths in Alberta, 14 of which were in the south zone.  If you isolate Medicine Hat from the south zone there were two fentanyl deaths in 2016, seven in 2017 and one in the first quarter of 2018.

If fentanyl can be deadly, carfentanil is much worse.

“A unit of carfentanil is 100 times as potent as the same amount of fentanyl, 5,000 times as potent as a unit of heroin and 10,000 times as potent as a unit of morphine,” according to Wikipedia. Carfentanil is often added to or sold as heroin because it is less expensive and easier to obtain.

Carfentanil is believed to be the cause of one death in the south zone in 2016, nine in 2017 and there were seven in the first quarter of 2018. The Calgary zone, according to the report, has the next highest statistics in Alberta with 29 carfentanil deaths in the first quarter of 2018.

Note: This story has been updated to correct that there were 257 fentanyl-related deaths in all of Alberta in 2015, not in the south zone as originally written.

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