Withdrawal fears have leaders on alert

The phasing out of oxycontin has First Nations leaders and medical services providers on alert for a major health catastrophe in northern Ontario.
With estimates ranging up to 5,000 people addicted to opiods across the North, leaders are worried about the potential for severe public health and community safety risks as withdrawal symptoms hit large proportions of communities at the same time.
The Nishnawbe Aski Nation has called on both the provincial and federal governments to respond with “urgently needed” emergency strategies to help communities deal with the pending public health catastrophe.
“Potential for a mass involuntary opiate withdrawal is looming,” cautioned NAN deputy grand chief Mike Metatawabin. “The number of NAN First Nation community members addicted to oxycontin at risk for painful withdrawal is staggering.”
The concerns stem from recent government decisions to delist oxycontin and other oxycodone prescription drugs from government health benefits plans. The company responsible for the drug, Perdue Pharma, also plans to launch a new version of the drug that will be harder to tamper with.
Health Canada took oxycontin off of the Non Insured Health Benefits Program on February 15 as a response to the growing prescription drug addiction epidemic across Canada, and especially in First Nations communities.
It is estimated that the black-market supply of oxycontin could dry up between one to two months after the drug is pulled from the market.
Dr. Benedikt Fisher, a senior scientist at the Center for Addictions and Mental Health, said the removal of oxycontin from the market could lead to “massive increases in black market prices, use of other drugs, needle use sharing and crime.”
NAN has been calling for government help in dealing with prescription drug addiction since 2009, when it declared a state of emergency across its entire nation.
Since then individual communities have declared state of emergencies when addiction issues overwhelmed the provision of essential services or threatened the safety of community members. Cat Lake First Nation became the latest community to issue a plea for help when it declared a state of emergency on Jan. 23, 2012.
Metatawabin said NAN has given the government a list of what is required to help communities through the expected withdrawal period, including funding to implement NAN’s prescription drug addiction framework, opiod treatment programs, better access to Suboxone in First Nations communities, increased medical, nursing and mental health professionals and increased police and security resources.
“We must act now to care for these very vulnerable people and need to access the resources of Ontario and Canada,” Metatawabin said.
James Morris, the executive director at the Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority, said all parties have to get together immediately to deal with the withdrawal symptoms in communities.
“The first step is to make sure the needs NAN is calling for are in place,” Morris said.
In the long term Morris said he would like to see First Nations communities included in mainstream emergency response procedures, so that when a community like Cat Lake, for example, issues a state of emergency, resources and support immediately become available.