Drug checking service will keep users safe, help inform P.E.I. government policy

CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Keigh Wooden considers himself one of many fortunate ones.

He has struggled with drug dependancy for about two-thirds of his life and just lately began dwelling in a tent in downtown Charlottetown. However the tablets he takes, prescription opioids, are literally prescribed to him.

For a lot of Prince Edward Island residents battling dependancy, this isn’t an possibility. And Wooden has seen what can occur to individuals who use tablets they purchase on the road.

Overdose, hospitalization and even deaths — Wooden has needed to witness it.

“I do know a child that ended up, from smoking medication, within the hospital. Overdosed on fentanyl,” he mentioned in a Sept. 10 SaltWire interview.

Whereas lethal ranges of fentanyl might not be in each drug individuals use on the road, even small quantities will be harmful, Wooden mentioned.

“Not lots, nevertheless it doesn’t take lots.”

Wooden and his friends will quickly have the prospect to know extra about what elements make up Island road medication.

A drug checking service is coming to P.E.I. that can permit drug customers to search out precisely what’s in a capsule or powder, Shawn Martin, P.E.I.’s hurt discount co-ordinator informed SaltWire in a Sept. 8 interview.

“Till one thing like a drug checking service is established, it’s very troublesome to know what’s within the illicit drug provide.” — Shawn Martin

Underneath the identical Well being Canada exemption that can permit an overdose prevention web site, individuals with medication will have the ability to legally take them to the OPS location to have them examined for contaminants comparable to fentanyl, Martin mentioned.

“An individual would stroll into an overdose prevention web site. They’d be permitted to convey pre-obtained substances. They might have these substances checked for high-risk adulterants,” Martin mentioned. “And what we see from throughout Canada is, when individuals know what’s of their medication, that we’re capable of stop overdoses.”

The drug checking system will do two principal issues. The speedy profit is the information it affords customers to make knowledgeable selections. The longer-term profit to Martin and his public well being colleagues is the info collected on which contaminants are showing wherein medication.

This info will likely be made public and accessible on-line, he mentioned.

“Till one thing like a drug checking service is established, it’s very troublesome to know what’s within the illicit drug provide.”

Difficult concern

The P.E.I. Chief Public Well being Workplace has mentioned it is aware of fentanyl and its analogues are in P.E.I.’s drug provide.

However the concern is extra sophisticated than that. Benzodiazepines, a category of potent central nervous system depressants that features Xanax (alprazolam) and Ativan (lorazepam), are additionally turning up in medication offered as opioids, Martin mentioned.

Whereas naloxone is a short lived antidote extensively accessible for opioid overdose, there is no such thing as a comparable antidote for benzos, Martin mentioned. On prime of this, combining CNS depressants — comparable to alcohol, opioids or benzodiazepines — will increase the danger of overdose and respiratory failure, he mentioned.

And there are additional problems.

Whereas there are lots of different lessons of medication, P.E.I. well being authorities solely hold public overdose and unintended loss of life stats on opioids, with explicit consideration to fentanyl.

In response to a SaltWire query, Martin mentioned these opioid stats are customary public well being apply in Canada, and proof reveals opioids pose a uniquely excessive danger for overdose.

“On getting a great understanding of different substances, I might recommend that’s the place the drug checking service is available in,” Martin mentioned.

At a look

Following are the 5 initiatives Shawn Martin is main with the neighborhood hurt discount steering committee:

• Overdose prevention web site
• Group drop bins (public needles disposal)
• Drug checking service
• Interactive shelling out system (hurt discount supplies comparable to sterile syringes, HIV self check kits, Naloxone)
• Distant overdose response providers

Supply: Shawn Martin, provincial hurt discount co-ordinator

Privateness issues

When SaltWire spoke with Wooden, he was staying in one of many so-called “tent metropolis” areas in Charlottetown.

Whereas there, SaltWire additionally spoke with a lady who declined to provide her title, as she feared retribution for her household. However the girl did level out a priority she mentioned she and different individuals could have about any government-run drug checking service: privateness.

It received’t enchantment to the general public except customers know their names, addresses and well being card info usually are not being saved, she mentioned.

She agrees with the necessity to acquire information on drug contaminants however doesn’t belief a system that would centralize the data of susceptible individuals for police and authorities to make use of towards them.

“Don’t ask for private info. Simply do your testing and that’s it. It’s fairly reduce and dry. It’s black and white,” she mentioned.

SaltWire interviewed Martin earlier than talking with the girl in tent metropolis on Sept. 10 and didn’t have a possibility to ask about these issues earlier than a Sept. 10 deadline.

Hurt discount

Through the Sept. 8 interview with Martin, although, SaltWire did ask about decriminalization and protected provide, the 2 large image matters that come up in interviews with drug customers and advocates alike.

Martin famous B.C. just lately acquired a three-year federal exemption for private possession of small quantities of a number of lessons of medication.

“These substances stay unlawful, however adults who’ve 2.5 grams or much less of the sure illicit substances for private use will not be arrested, charged or have their medication seized,” mentioned a B.C. authorities press release from Might.

Martin and his colleagues will likely be monitoring B.C.’s instance of decriminalization, which fits into impact on Jan. 1, 2023, he mentioned.

Protected provide, however, would give docs the ability to prescribe safely manufactured medication, notably opioids, that might in any other case be made and offered illegally on the road, Martin mentioned.

“We see that that’s an evidence-based intervention,” Martin mentioned. “It’s additionally efficient in saving lives, and it has important well being advantages, additionally very important public security advantages.”

Earlier than growing one thing like this technique, although, P.E.I. wants the strong basis of hurt discount providers Martin and his colleagues are at present engaged on, he mentioned.

“Then we are able to have a look at, what are the evidence-based interventions from there.”

Logan MacLean is a reporter with the SaltWire Community in Prince Edward Island. He will be reached by e-mail at [email protected] and adopted on Twitter @loganmaclean94.