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Fentanyl derivatives leading to rise in opioid poisonings, drug strategy committee says

The Sault Ste. Marie and Area Drug Strategy Committee look at underlying issues following latest wave of suspected opioid-related deaths
11-05-2018-OverdoseVigilJH04
A vigil was held outside the Sault Ste. Marie courthouse for four people who died of suspected opioid overdoses Nov. 5, 2018. James Hopkin/SooToday

It’s been nearly three weeks since Sault Ste. Marie Police Service warned the public of the dangers of opioid use following three deaths in a three-day span - all of them, police suspect, related to opioid poisoning.

Sault Ste. Marie and Area Drug Strategy Committee co-chair Desiree Beck says the drug strategy committee, which consists of approximately 20 frontline workers representing 16 agencies city-wide, is currently looking at prioritizing what issues surrounding addiction and substance use need to be addressed heading into 2019.  

“It’s horrifying,” Beck told SooToday last week. “It’s terrible to think that people are losing people that they love because of substances that are really unregulated and terrifying.”

Since the committee evolved from a small working group in 2014, it has noticed some alarming trends.

Oxycontin was pulled from the shelves, and heroin, along with other opioids, took its place - followed by a surge of synthetic fentanyl.

Beck says that heroin, fentanyl and stimulants like crystal meth have all seen dramatic increases in use.

In 2016, the drug strategy committee partnered with city police to roll out the ‘know your source’ campaign, which came with the tagline, ‘know your dealer, know your source.’

But knowing the source is growing increasingly difficult.

“Since that campaign came out, there’s been such a wave - a dramatic wave - of all of these opioid poisonings, because of all the different derivatives in fentanyl that we don’t even know about,” Beck said.

Those derivatives of fentanyl are now often being cut into heroin that has lost some of its potency.

“We have no idea [of] the potency or the toxicity of that powder, just because of how it’s being created, how it’s being cut into the supply,” said Beck.

And that can lead to what’s known as ‘opioid poisoning,’ which isn’t the same thing as an overdose.

“If you get a dose that has a lot of fentanyl, that’s a poisoning - you didn’t intend to do that,” Beck said.

Opioid poisonings can happen to anyone who’s using - and that includes people who use opioids recreationally.

Beck points out that not all substance use is “chaotic or out of control.”

“That’s one of the big things that we’re seeing in this nationwide wave of opioid poisonings and associated deaths, is that we’re seeing a lot of people who would not normally be seen as your stereotypical substance user,” she said. “It’s not just chaotic substance use, it’s recreational substance use as well.”

“I think it is really easy to label it, but that’s one of things that I think we have to look at...there’s a lot of issues that come out of the woodwork when you want to talk substance use.”

Multi-faceted approach to underlying issues

The Sault Ste. Marie and Area Drug Strategy Committee want to address the social issues that are contributing factors in ongoing drug use, Beck says, like adequate housing and mental health supports.

“There’s so many different layers of things underneath it,” said Beck. “Now we are just getting at all of these other layers of other contributing factors of substance abuse that are affecting our community, and we’re prioritizing those as we move into 2019.”

That’s why the committee, Beck says, has so many agencies sitting at the same table - taking part in monthly committee meetings, working groups and subcommittee meetings.

Here’s a few of the agencies currently involved in the drug strategy committee that Beck mentioned while speaking to SooToday:

  • Sault Ste. Marie Police Service
  • First responders
  • Algoma Public Health
  • Breton House
  • Algoma Family Services
  • Ontario Works
  • Alternatives For Youth
  • Sault Area Hospital
  • John Howard Society
  • Group Health Centre

“All of these different perspectives don’t seem like they’re directly related to addictions or substance use, but I guarantee you they’re all interconnected, and that’s what we’re trying to do, is really trying to make the community see that it is all connected, we are all in this together,” said Beck.

Changing public perception

One of the committee’s challenges is changing how people engage in dialogue while facing “an incredible amount of loss” following the wave of suspected opioid-related deaths in recent months.

“We put a lot of effort and a lot of time into providing education, and I would say that it’s going to be really hard for us to continue to get people to engage with us in positive ways, versus negative ways where they might say, ‘people should just stop using drugs,’” said Beck. “Because that’s a big one - changing people’s perception from this judgmental view of what we’re trying to do to an open-minded, non-judgmental supportive view.”

Beck says that the recent deaths that police suspect are opioid-related serve as an indicator of layers - layers of social issues, and layers of trauma.  

“To me it’s an indicator that we have so much trauma, we have so many social issues that still need to be addressed,” “I think it’s tragic. We’re losing so many incredible people that the world really puts a horrible label [on] of addict or drug user, but it really makes me sad for the person that we actually lost.”

Sault Ste. Marie was recently identified by the Canadian Institute for Health Information as having one of the highest hospitalization rates for opioid poisonings in Canada, according to a new analysis

 


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James Hopkin

About the Author: James Hopkin

James Hopkin is a reporter for SooToday in Sault Ste. Marie
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