7.4 Opioid Crisis

What is the opioid crisis?

The opioid crisis is a complex public health issue. There are many factors that led us to the significant increase in opioid-related overdoses today. Some of these factors include:

• high rates of opioid prescribing
• the emergence of strong synthetic opioids in the illegal drug supply – such as fentanyl and carfentanil

What are opioids exactly?

Opioids such as fentanyl, morphine, oxycodone and hydromorphone are medications that can help relieve pain.

Opioids are drugs that affect your mind, mood, and mental processes and can also cause euphoria, or the feeling of being “high.” This creates the potential for them to be used improperly.

Legal vs. illegal opioid

Legal opioids are prescribed by a health care professional most often to treat pain from conditions such as injuries, surgery, dental procedures, or long-term chronic pain.

Illegal opioids are any opioids that are made, shared or sold illegally. Illegal opioids include:

• street drugs from a drug dealer
• opioids are given to you by someone who is not your health care provider
• opioids that are not prescribed to you but are taken from someone else

The opioid crisis is worsening; where is the political will to solve it? By Global News. A B.C. report released Tuesday found that the first half of 2021 had the most-ever drug-related deaths in the first six months of a year, beating last year’s record by over 30 per cent. From January to June, 1,011 people died from an overdose in B.C. Drug toxicity is now the leading cause of death in that province for people aged 19 to 39. Meanwhile, a June report from the Public Health Agency of Canada found that on average, around 17 people died of an opioid overdose per day across Canada in 2020. Jamie Mauracher reports on the worsening health crisis, and takes a closer look at how each party plans to tackle the problem.⁽¹⁾

Opioid Crisis during COVID-19

The Opioid Crisis has been strongly affected by COVID-19 across Canada and Globally.  Many challenges are appearing in all levels of Government.  Recognizing that the opioid crisis is a complex public health issue has had a large impact on agencies and communities which include: paramedics responding to opioid overdoses doubled, fatal deaths are at the highest level experienced, health care system, harm reduction, overdose prevention, those who have been released from incarceration have higher overdose or deaths, and impact on social services, counselling, policing, and communities to name a few.

ATTRIBUTION: This chapter is not covered by the adaptation statement, it is an original work.