Perspective
Strategies for Reducing Opioid-Overdose Deaths — Lessons from CanadaEvan Wood, M.D., Ph.D.
Audio Interview with Dr. Evan Wood on actions taken by Canada to reduce opioid-overdose deaths.
As the United States faces this unprecedented epidemic, there are lessons to be learned from Canada, which has taken bold action on a number of fronts with the aim of reducing deaths related to fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and other opioids. For instance, in March 2016, the Canadian government made the overdose-reversal drug naloxone available without a prescription. Although naloxone is also increasingly available in many regions of the United States, laws in 14 states provide no immunity from criminal prosecution for health care providers who prescribe or distribute it to laypersons. Furthermore, in 36 states, existing laws make possession of naloxone without a prescription illegal.
The Canadian government has also passed legislation aimed at facilitating the development of medically supervised injection facilities, where people who use drugs can inject opioids they buy on the street under the supervision of health care staff. Although research has found that supervised injection facilities can reduce rates of fatal overdoses by more than 30% in communities with high rates of drug use1 and can help facilitate greater uptake of addiction treatment, there are few, if any, such programs in the United States. In recent months, however, public health officials in several U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Seattle, and Philadelphia, have endorsed plans to open pilot supervised injection programs to address increasing rates of overdose deaths.
Continue to article: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1800216?query=TOC
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