Supervised consumption there to prevent overdose, not just reverse them
By Gillian Slade on August 28, 2018.
SUBMITTED PHOTO Leslie Hill, executive director of HIV Community Link, is shown. A long-rumoured Maple Avenue location for a proposed supervised consumption site in Medicine Hat is no longer in the cards. One of the owners of the building says the decision was made after seeing the pushback from other tenants and the neighbourhood.
gslade@medicinehatnews.com @MHNGillianSlade Administering an antidote when a person overdoses is part of the service a supervised consumption site provides but they also help to “prevent” overdoses, says HIV Community Link, the organization responsible for establishing the site in Medicine Hat. They observe the habits of clients, and where there are repeated overdoses they are able to advise the client to reduce the dosage, said Leslie Hill executive director. When not knowing what a substance contains, it is safer to take a smaller dose initially and then an additional dose later if necessary. The assertion that people engage in high-risk substance behaviour because Naloxone is available, is simply not accurate, said Hill. “People don’t want to overdose, and when it has to be reversed with medication, it is actually quite painful. They go into withdrawal,” said Hill. “Nobody wants to experience an overdose, and nobody wants to experience Naloxone because it completely blocks the uptake of opioids on the receptor in the brain and puts the person into immediate withdrawal, which is really physically painful.” A total of 68 per cent of those using substances in Medicine Hat are male, according to a local survey undertaken in the summer of 2017, regarding the needs of those consuming substances. RELATED: HIV Community Link hopes to learn from other supervised consumption sites According to the “Supervised Consumption: A report to the Community of Medicine Hat,” the age they were when first starting to use substances may surprise you. Six per cent were age 10 or younger, 22 per cent were 12 or younger and 49 per cent between 13 and 18. The majority, 59 per cent, use drugs four or more times each week, 18 per cent said seven or more times a day, and 17 per cent said five or six times a day, according to the survey. Of the 185 people surveyed, all of whom use substances, most are current clients at the needle exchange program on Second Street SE, also operated by HIV Community Link. More than 45 per cent of those surveyed were between the ages of 25 and 40, and slightly more than 20 per cent were between 41 to 60 years old. Those between the ages of 16 and 18 made up almost 20 per cent while those between 18 and 24 years of age accounted for 15 per cent. The needle exchange location, currently on Second Street SE, will close once the site opens in Medicine Hat, said Hill. The site will also do on-site housing assessments, addiction counselling, explain detox options, wound care, HIV and STI testing, and provide information about Suboxone and Methadone treatments for opioid addiction and treatment. In 2017/18, the dispensing of drugs such as Methadone and Suboxone in the south zone, including Medicine Hat and Lethbridge, 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. In 2017, Medicine Hat had about two patients per 1,000 people of the population receiving Suboxone and three per 1,000 of the population receiving Methadone, compared to provincial averages of two and one, said a spokesperson for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta that monitors triplicate prescriptions such as these. 16
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