Except for a brief foray into Percocet I am
extremely grateful that my addiction never took me into opioids. Opioids are
extremely addictive and are killing people on a regular basis across the
nation. Just over a decade ago, when I first became an addictions counsellor, I
began to see a lot of people addicted to OxyContin. Many of these people were
prescribed the medication to deal with a pain-related injury and over time
became addicted to the drug. The sad thing was this medication was originally
advertised as non-addictive. Doctors were, and still are, prescribing OxyContin
like Tic-Tacs. I also saw that dentists were prescribing it as well. It seems
to me that it’s standard operating procedure for a dentist to hand out OxyContin
for someone who has had dental surgery. To me – that’s crazy. I remember having
four wisdom teeth taken out at once and the strongest thing the dentist gave me
was codeine – that was enough. It seems irresponsible to prescribe opioid
medication willy-nilly. Hip-hop artist Mackelmore came out with a song entitled
Drug Dealer with the following
lyrics:
My drug dealer was a doctor, doctor
Had the plug from the big pharma, pharma
He said that he would heal me, heal me
But he only gave me problems, problems
I think he trying to kill me, kill me
He tried to kill me for a dollar, dollar
I
think those lyrics sum it up pretty nicely. I could also say the same for the
whole methadone industry but that’s a whole different blog. What started with
Percocet and OxyContin has now ballooned into Hydromorphone, Fentanyl and the
deadly Carfentanil where just two grains of it (size of two grains of salt) can
kill someone. For some reason Carfentanil, an elephant tranquilizer, is getting
into the substances people use. It has even been found in marijuana.
Due
to the death toll, from opioid overdoses, the Ontario Government was quickly able
to put together a response to help prevent these deaths. Part of the response
has been in the form of providing Naloxone Kits to anyone requiring them.
Naloxone is a drug that helps prevent death in case of an opioid overdose. If
someone has an OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) Card the kit is free. For
those who don’t the price is approximately $30. This, of course, is great news.
Unfortunately very few pharmacies are carrying these kits due to the
requirements the province has attached to handing them out. When someone wants
to get a kit they have to sit through a lengthy training session in order to
receive it. The training sessions includes lessons on how to administer the
drug, signs to look for in a person suffering from an overdose, basic CPR
training, etc. The majority of pharmacies don’t have the manpower and/or time
to spend this amount of time with one person which is why they chose not to
carry the kits. In a perfect world this knowledge would be great but we don’t
live in a perfect world. Most of the time the person injecting the Naloxone
isn’t the one who got the kit, and therefore the training, to begin with. The
training doesn’t do someone much good if they’re unconscious. This type of illogical thinking is often the case with
government programs. The intellectuals who come up with these plans often don’t
understand the logistics and reality of a situation. Often times they don’t
even understand something they are for or against. The perfect example is the
non-government support of 12 Step programs due to the misbelief that 12 Steps
is a religious program. I can assure you it is not. Religions tell you what
their God is – 12 Step do not. Religion has certain requirements to join – 12
Step you only need a desire to stop what the Fellowship is designed to help
with. That’s just a couple differences. But I digress.
For
the Ontario Naloxone Kit Program to be even more effective this “training
session” should be stopped. Better to have the kit with no training then not
have it and someone overdoses. This along with more money for residential
treatment centres (including 12 Steps) would go a long way in saving people’s
lives.
Dave
the Dude
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