New Alberta opioids strategy takes away access to life-saving treatments, critics say
Ophelia Cara would need to spend a full day on public transit travelling to and from a specialized clinic under Alberta’s new prescribing strategy to access a rapid-acting opioid that she says saved her life. The Calgary woman was prescribed hydromorphone from her doctor nearly two years ago to treat her reliance on cocaine and fentanyl.
The government says the new standards will protect communities by ensuring people cannot trade or sell the narcotics on the illegal market, while allowing more people to access the treatment. Typically, people prescribed hydromorphone and fentanyl have been unable to start or stabilize on OAT, according to addictions physicians. They say these patients are at extraordinarily high risk of overdose, and addictions experts say it is unlikely they would be able to adjust to OAT.
Studies out of British Columbia last year suggest the use of diverted pharmaceutical opioids can reduce the risk of exposure to uncontrolled opioids and associated harms. In Calgary and Edmonton, AHS has already taken control of prescribing hydromorphone, heroin and fentanyl as treatment for opioid-use disorder, though there are no patients currently prescribed heroin. Within five months, current prescribers across the province will have had to transition patients to OAT medications or an AHS clinic.
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