Province to hike availability of fentanyl overdose antidote

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This article was published 12/10/2016 (3338 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s health minister says the province plans to greatly expand the availability of an antidote to fentanyl overdoses.

Kelvin Goertzen said Wednesday he has instructed his officials to establish a provincewide distribution system. He expects that more than 3,500 kits containing the antidote naloxone to be distributed annually within Manitoba.

A formal announcement is expected within weeks.

Early this year, the former NDP government ordered 1,300 kits at a cost of $35 each to be distributed to addicts and their families within Winnipeg. The kits are available through the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s Street Connections harm-reduction program.

While he wasn’t critical of past efforts, Goertzen said a more broad-based program is needed to make the life-saving drug available in case of overdoses.

“It’s not been robust enough or adequate enough, given what we’re dealing with,” he said of the current program.

A Free Press investigation last year revealed that the opioid problem in Winnipeg was more severe than many thought. The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service said in the first 10 months of 2015 it responded to 96 emergency calls involving fentanyl in which paramedics administered naloxone.

Recently, the Winnipeg Police Service announced that officers will soon be equipped with the antidote. Police are now working out the logistics with health officials.

Goertzen wants better public information on how those in need can obtain the kits. He also wants to see improved efforts in teaching young people about the extreme dangers of opioids such as fentanyl and carfentanil — including the establishment of peer group education.

“They’re not always taking what they think they’re taking, and they don’t always know the consequences of it,” he said of users.

Goertzen said opioid use will be among the topics for discussion at a meeting of ministers of health next week. A national summit is also expected on the issue before the end of the year.

In the legislature Wednesday, Liberal MLA Jon Gerrard pressed Goertzen to establish a special detox unit in Winnipeg for opioid addicts.

He said the idea has the backing of families who have lost loved ones to fentanyl overdoses. As Gerrard spoke, Arlene Last-Kolb, who lost her 24-year-old son, Jessie, to a fentanyl overdose two years ago, looked on from the visitors’ gallery.

Goertzen said later that he would want to consult experts on whether a special treatment unit for a particular type of drug is warranted. It may make more sense, he said, simply to boost medical drug detox capacity in general.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca