In the first half of 2023, violations involving opioids in Calgary were up 314 per cent over the average
In another reflection of the unrelenting opioid crisis, city police say the number of incidents they’ve dealt with involving the drugs has more tripled in 2023 compared to recent years.
In the first half of 2023, incidents where opioids were considered the most serious violation numbered 207, up 314 per cent over the average for the previous five years and more than double for that time period in 2022.
“We’ve obviously seen more of a dedicated look at opioids given all the health and public safety issues,” he said.
“It’s significantly higher and much more prevalent than it was in 2018 . . . There’s money to be made by continually trafficking in these dangerous substances.”
That tends to involve organized crime, contributing to shootings in the city as offenders battle over the profitable trade, said Pennoyer.
So far this year, CPS has made 2,500 fentanyl seizures, compared with 2,100 involving methamphetamine.
And while opioid incidents have been dramatically trending up, those of meth — as with almost all other substance categories — have actually dropped slightly in recent years.
Cannabis, which was legalized for recreational use in 2018 but still contains some legal restrictions, has been all but dropped by police as they turn their attention to harder drugs, said Pennoyer.
“That’s where it needs to be, it does more community harm.”
Those policing numbers dovetail with an opioid epidemic that continues to ravage Alberta.
Through eight months of 2023, Alberta and Calgary are experiencing the worst drug poisoning death rates on record and are on track for their deadliest year in history, according to new provincial data.
The numbers come amid a push from UCP government members to end public funding for supervised consumption sites.
Data published last month by the province showed an additional 147 people died of toxic drug overdoses in August, making it the province’s third-deadliest year to date. The province has already recorded 1,262 deaths in 2023 to opioids.
Calgary’s death rate is also significantly higher than the provincial rate, reaching 47.3 people per 100,00 through the first eight months of this year.
The opioid plague has also kept Alberta RCMP busy, with Mounties reporting a 100 per cent increase in overdose responses from January to November compared to all of last year and a 24 per cent hike in Naloxone deployment.
Those battling the criminal end of the crisis are alarmed by a severity not seen from other drugs, said Pennoyer.
“It’s like nothing we’ve experienced before, this opioid epidemic — we are motivated to save the citizens of Calgary from this,” said the CPS inspector, adding there’s no way to enforce the problem away.
“I don’t know if the law enforcement part of it is the be-all and end-all of that process.”
Local, larger-scale production of fentanyl doesn’t appear to play a significant role in the drug’s prevalence, said Pennoyer, but it’s hardly unheard of.
In July 2021, police busted a “superlab” that had been operating at Aldersyde, 45 kilometres southeast of Calgary, seizing 31 kilograms of fentanyl and 7,600 kilograms of chemicals that produced the synthetic opioid with a street value of about $300 million, say police.
Smaller production sites inside the city have also been dismantled.
And the toxicity of drugs confiscated by police varies, he said.
“We’ve made relatively pure seizures as well as fentanyl (cut) with a variety of different substances,” said Pennoyer.
The increasing toxicity of fentanyl cut with dangerous additives such as benzodiazepine, which extend the drug’s high, is a growing threat, said addictions specialist Dr. Monty Ghosh.
“It’s very similar to what people used to feel from heroin. The problem is, it increases your risk of having a drug poisoning event or overdose,” said Ghosh, who works with vulnerable populations.
Those additives can make it more difficult to reverse overdoses, as well as complicating recovery as users go through benzodiazepine withdrawal, he said.
“We’re definitely needing to use more Naloxone, especially with benzos and carfentanil, which is 50 times more potent (than fentanyl),” said Ghosh.
“Things are definitely worse now than ever before and it’s not going to get any better.”
The scourge has led some desperate users to feed their addictions by targeting rural areas not as heavily policed as Alberta’s cities, he said.
“They’re typically rural areas within 50 kilometres of metropolitan areas. It just runs down the QE2 and it’s thefts, property-related crime,” said King.
He said the big money and organized crime involved in trafficking opioids and the drug’s powerful sway over their users means the trade will never be snuffed out.
“The reality is, we’ll never get rid of it, we’ll have to deal with it long-term and those people with opioid disorder,” said King.
The CPS’s Pennoyer said one of the barriers to a more effective crackdown is the difficulty in holding traffickers to account for customers who died from their toxic products.
No such convictions have been obtained in Calgary, he said.
“The standard for charging someone with manslaughter or negligence causing death is significant, and meeting that threshold is difficult to attain,” said Pennoyer.
Earlier this year, the B.C. government launched a pilot project of decriminalizing possession of small amounts of illicit drugs following its decision to provide a safer, prescribed supply of opioid alternatives to save lives and undermine the illicit market.
Some studies have shown participants in the safer supply program that includes opioids, cocaine and methamphetamine have benefited.
Pennoyer notes Alberta’s chiefs of police believe it’s premature to get on the decriminalization bandwagon, favouring instead a current comprehensive approach that includes treatment.
“Individual initiatives without a co-ordinated plan is not the best plan,” he said.
Addictions specialist Ghosh also urged caution about distributing a safer supply, saying there’s a risk of those drugs being diverted into the illicit market.
“There is much concern around unintended consequences of safe supply and we would need to have those minimized,” he said.
“Ideally, safe supply would be partnered with access to wellness supports, including treatment and recovery-oriented options.”
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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