Canada is facing a crisis of opioid use.
Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer Robert Strang says the country is seeing more overdoses and deaths due to fentanyl coming from China.
And while we aren’t at the same levels as out west, 49 Nova Scotians have died as the result of overdoses this year.
Chief Medical Officer Addresses National Summit on Opioid Use https://t.co/fsitzUsuCc
— Nova Scotia Gov. (@nsgov) November 24, 2016
David Martell is a local doctor who specializes in addictions.
He says he’s optimistic about the province’s plans for an opioid strategy.
“It’s just coming to light that this is a chronic medical disease and not a social problem and that we need to address it from a health care standpoint not from a criminality standpoint.”
Martel is glad to see the province working on a strategy to get in front of the issue.
“We’re doing it in advance of major problems that other provinces have encountered and I think that’s to our benefit. We can do a lot of the work now before real problems start to come.”
Martell thinks attitudes around addictions need to change and that should start while doctors are still in medical school.
CMO Robert Strang agrees.
He says our health care system needs to change how pain, mental health and addiction issues are treated.
