2024-01-31 00:58:17
Last year, more than 500 people died of overdose in Quebec. That’s 42 deaths per month. These figures, taken from the latest report from the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec, represent only “the tip of the iceberg” of what is really happening on the ground, estimates Kim Brière-Charest, project director in substances. psychoactive substances from the Association for Public Health of Quebec.
“Obviously, these are powerful data, but they are only part of the picture of everything that is happening,” she said in an interview with Le Devoir, on the eve of a presentation she will make on Wednesday morning. as part of the Sustainable Health Summit.
“Yes, there is some monitoring [des surdoses non mortelles renversées par l’administration de Naloxone], she admits. On the other hand, when an overdose occurs in housing or an informal consumption space, this is data that escapes us. People will experience overdoses, be administered naloxone but will not necessarily report this overdose. And we think that there are probably a lot of overdoses in the community like that which are not counted and which mean that we do not have a complete picture of the crisis. »
She mentions various indicators calculated in Montreal – such as the increase in emergency interventions in supervised consumption services, the increase in interventions for poisoning by Urgence Santé and an increase in the distribution of community naloxone – which point in this direction. and who “can give a portrait that is still the hidden side of the overdose crisis in Quebec”.
However, it is important, according to the specialist who herself comes from the field, to have the most complete picture possible to “see how we can support and strengthen the response to the overdose crisis in Quebec”.
Solutions
One of the solutions that she considers essential to stave off the overdose crisis is the expansion of the safer supply program, a Canadian program adopted during the pandemic which allows addicts to obtain pharmaceutical opioids like Dilaudid for free at the pharmacy. This is to prevent them from consuming opioids contaminated with Fentanyl on the street.
Le Devoir recently revealed that opium addicts were reselling their doses of Dilaudid when leaving the pharmacy to meet their basic needs and buy other street drugs. The head of addiction programs at South-Central Montreal, Dr. Marie-Ève Goyer, responded that the problem was partly caused by the fact that the program is too limited. An observation shared by Kim Brière-Charest, who suggests “diversifying the offer” to better meet the real needs of users. “We are far from the substances of choice of people who will consume drugs and therefore, often, these people will continue to obtain their supplies on the black market,” she notes.
She also suggests “reviewing the legal framework for simple possession and personal use of drugs”, whether through “diversion” or “decriminalization” of the use of hard drugs, as is currently the case. the case for cannabis. “This would prevent people from hiding to consume and therefore being even more at risk of overdoses, but also to prevent people who live with an addiction from having, in addition, legal consequences linked to the realities that they are already living. »
Finally, she believes that action must be taken to eliminate the stigmatization that “accompanies health inequities” and “leads to harm in terms of physical and mental health.” Indeed, an analysis of coroner’s reports demonstrated “an over-representation of socio-economic conditions [précaires], physical health disorders and mental health disorders in people who died from overdoses,” she recalls. “We must therefore look at the social determinants of health beyond consumption alone. »
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