You often hear people say that it’s better to be proactive than reactive in your approach to problems and that’s what the provincial government and regional health authorities have done when it comes to the issue of opioid overdoses in Manitoba, which are mainly a current concern in Winnipeg right now.
As Northern Regional Health Authority (NRHA) chief medical officer of health Dr. Michael Isaac said in a conversation with media last week, the extent of the use of opioids, particularly powerful synthetic ones like fentanyl and carfentanil, by drug users in the north isn’t exaxtly clear at the moment, but it’s best to try to stay ahead of the problem rather than trying to catch up once it’s made its presence known.
“In the north at this point anecdotally we haven’t heard of a lot of fentanyl use but we’re trying to get ahead of the game,” said Isaac. “Winnipeg has started to have issues over the past couple of years and we’re working under the assumption that fentanyl is going to make its way to the north if it hasn’t already and we want to be prepared.”
For all we’ve heard lately in the media about the dangers of fentanyl, the reality, Isaac said, is that people who don’t use illicit drugs are at very little risk from it. To help spread this message, the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba (AFM), along with health-care agencies and the police, will hold community forums in various communities, including Thompson, over the next few weeks, recognizing that education and knowledge are the key to making sure people are protected and prepared.
That government agencies are committed to this course before the problem has even started to take serious root outside Manitoba’s biggest city is a testament to how the principles of harm reduction have been incorporated into society at large and how much public policy has evolved over the past few decades, from essentially a two-pronged strategy of “Just say no” and locking people away the prevailed during the first 20 years or so of the war on drugs, to a more mature approach that acknowledges drug use is not a problem that society can arrest its way out of and, by providing drugs to help prevent overdoses, ensures that the public good of all the members of our society is the primary consideration. It wasn’t that long ago that the idea of needle exchanges to help prevent transmission of blood-borne diseases among intravenous drug users was too hot from some government officials to handle, or that preaching the benefits of abstinence was considered the best way to go about preventing teen pregnancies and the spread of STDs. In some places, the latter policy still dominates. They also happen to be among the places where STD prevalence and teen pregnancy rates are at their highest.
No matter what you think of drugs and how they should be restricted and managed by the various levels of government, everyone should be able to agree how sensible it is to put programs in place to help prevent unnecessary deaths.
