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Fatal overdoses have increased across Canada, mirroring the\u00a0much larger epidemic in the United States. In Ontario, the most\u00a0populous province, prescription opioid deaths rose 40 per cent in\u00a0six years; in the western province of Saskatchewan, they more\u00a0than doubled since 2010. An\u00a0influx of illicit variations of\u00a0fentanyl fueled an 80 per cent increase in deaths last year in\u00a0British Columbia to a record 914.<\/p>\n
![\"Hakique](\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/d3136_hakique-virani.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Stickers may have been helpful in 2006, says Dr. Hakique Virani. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
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Philpott has called the opioid epidemic the nation’s\u00a0greatest public health crisis and pledged to use every tool at\u00a0her disposal to fix it.
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“We’re concerned when opioid prescriptions are on the\u00a0increase,” she told Reuters. “We need to understand what’s\u00a0
behind that and make wise recommendations.”
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Drug companies have said they support measures to increase\u00a0patient safety. Several companies and industry groups declined\u00a0to comment until the government lays the new proposals.
\u00a0Images\/Media
Some doctors and public health experts who have long\u00a0clamored for safeguards said the new measures may be too little,\u00a0too late.
\u00a0
“Stickers may have been helpful in 2006, 2007,” said\u00a0Edmonton, Alberta, addiction doctor Hakique Virani. “But when\u00a0
we’ve created this huge demand for opioids that is now being met\u00a0by powder from China, and you can traffic a million doses of\u00a0that stuff in a 10-gram greeting card envelope, I’m sorry, but\u00a0stickers on pill bottles is not going to solve this problem.”
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Philpott said she recognizes the challenge.
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“You don’t want to drive people to use even more harmful\u00a0street drugs and illicit substances,” Philpott said. “So it\u00a0needs to be done with a tremendous amount of wisdom and\u00a0thoughtfulness, and we are certainly consulting widely to make\u00a0sure we don’t have any unintended consequences from our\u00a0actions.”<\/p>\n
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- SPECIAL REPORT: The new face of fighting fentanyl \u2014 Kati Mather’s road to recovery<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
- Downtown Vancouver ER is ground zero of opioid overdose crisis<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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Officials declined to provide a timetable. Health Canada\u00a0plans to put the warning sticker proposal to focus groups and\u00a0
gather public comment before Philpott makes a decision.
\u00a0
Philpott envisions stickers similar to those pharmacists put\u00a0on pill bottles reminding patients to take a medication with\u00a0
food. In addition to warning of the risks, she said, they would\u00a0advise patients where to get more information and help if\u00a0
needed.<\/p>\nUse for chronic pain not supported: MD<\/h2>\n
Rewriting label definitions of evidence-supported opioid\u00a0use would change how drug companies sell opioids in Canada, an\u00a0$881-million-a-year market.
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Doctors are allowed to prescribe “off-label,” tailoring prescriptions to patients’ individual needs. But pharmaceutical\u00a0
companies must follow the labels’ language in all marketing,\u00a0including advertisements and sales calls on physicians.
\u00a0
In an email, spokesman Grant Perry said OxyContin and\u00a0Hydromorph Contin maker Purdue “supports providing the most\u00a0relevant and up to date information” to doctors and patients, as\u00a0well as evidence-based updates.
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Representatives for Mallinckrodt, Teva and Sandoz did not\u00a0respond to Reuters’ queries. Pharmascience representatives did\u00a0not return calls or emails.
\u00a0
Spokeswoman Jennifer McCormack said in an email Janssen\u00a0would “continue to work with Health Canada to help ensure the\u00a0safe and appropriate use” of prescription opioids and it was\u00a0“important to carefully balance anti-abuse efforts” with patient\u00a0needs.
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In an effort to address Canada’s drug problem, health\u00a0officials made it more difficult to obtain OxyContin after\u00a0Purdue introduced a tamper-resistant formulation of the drug in\u00a02012. But physicians and addicts switched to different drugs.
\u00a0
Illegal fentanyl flooded Canada’s streets, and doctors began\u00a0prescribing more Hydromorph Contin, which has eclipsed oxycodone\u00a0and fentanyl as the most commonly prescribed opioid in Ontario,\u00a0B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec.
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Canadian and U.S. public health advocates have\u00a0campaigned unsuccessfully to restrict the long-term use of any\u00a0
opioid for non-cancer pain.
\u00a0
“The best available evidence does not support their use for\u00a0treatment of chronic pain,” said David Juurlink, an addiction\u00a0specialist at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
\u00a0
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released\u00a0non-binding guidelines last year cautioning against the use of\u00a0long-acting opioids as first-line treatment for chronic pain and\u00a0urging low initial doses and discontinuation as soon as\u00a0possible.
\u00a0
Supriya Sharma, Chief Medical Advisor at Health Canada,\u00a0said it’s too soon to say whether the agency’s changes would be\u00a0that sweeping.
\u00a0
“They can be that specific, and they can be much broader,”\u00a0she said in an interview.
\u00a0
With prescriptions and deaths rising, Sharma said, “We’re\u00a0trying to re-center that pendulum.”\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nArticle source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/health\/opioid-warning-stickers-1.3947878?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As deaths from powerful painkillers\u00a0continue to rise, Canada is pursuing unprecedented measures to\u00a0curb their use, including requiring cigarette-style warning\u00a0stickers on every prescription, Health Minister Jane Philpott\u00a0told Reuters. \u00a0 Next month Health Canada plans to publish a detailed proposal\u00a0for the stickers, which Philpott said would warn that opioid\u00a0painkillers can cause addiction and overdose. In March, an\u00a0advisory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-64317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Downtown Vancouver ER is ground zero of opioid overdose crisis<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n