Click to compare Canada’s hydromorph contin consumption with the rest of the world.
Used to be that America could easily claim the title of world opioid capital. But when it comes to the most powerful prescription drugs, Canada is now ahead – in part because of higher hydromorphone use.
Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews wants to re-examine who’s allowed to prescribe opioids, how they prescribe them and what pills the government pays for.
The drop in OxyContin and its replacement OxyNEO is “a success,” she told Global News in an interview Tuesday. But “there’s more to be done. … Who should be able to prescribe these drugs? What form is the right form? These are very important questions.”
Click to compare Canada’s hydromorph contin consumption with the rest of the world.
Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Health Canada rattled nerves south of the border last fall when it approved generic versions of OxyContin.
United States drug czar Gil Kerlikowske issued an alert to law-enforcement agencies, warning that “the potential exists for diversion into the United States because the old formulations, which are easier to abuse, are unavailable in the United States,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
“This alert seeks to raise awareness of this change with law enforcement along the Northern Border so law enforcement and border officials can work jointly to prevent diversion.”
Photo by Michelle Siu for the Globe and Mail
Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
A year after provincial governments clamped down on the most notorious name in prescription-drug abuse, other, more powerful, less regulated opioids are filling the void – with sometimes fatal results.
OxyContin’s off the market, its tamper-resistant replacement tougher to get. But Canadians are popping more pills than ever: In 2010, for the first time, Canada edged past the United States to become the highest opioid-consuming country, per capita, in the world.
And more Canadians are dying from it: In 2011, twice as many Ontarians were killed by opioid overdoses as drivers killed in car accidents, according to coroner’s statistics given to Global News. That toll has more than tripled since 2002.
Leslie Young, Global News
In last week’s budget, the federal government promised $50-million over seven years to help diversify the economies of two Quebec towns: Thetford Mines and Asbestos.
Both communities historically relied on asbestos mining as the biggest driver of their economies. And with the decline of the asbestos industry, the local economies have suffered.
But how far has the asbestos industry fallen? According to Industry Canada, the value of Canada’s raw asbestos exports has dropped 94 per cent between 1990 and 2011. Exports alone were worth $645-million in 1990 and fell to $41-million in 2011.
The government’s promised $50-million over seven years represents about 8 per cent of what asbestos exports were in 1990.
Track the fall in an interactive graphic here.
Anna Mehler Paperny, Global News
Purdue Pharmaceuticals markets a long-acting, non-tamper resistant opioid in Canada but argues that another long-acting, non-tamper resistant opioid in the U.S. is too dangerous to approve.
In an 80-page submission to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last July – quoting Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews, among several others – Purdue argued that allowing generic versions of OxyContin on the market without tamper-proofing mechanisms “would have a number of detrimental effects and would be flatly inconsistent with the Agency’s mission to promote and protect the public health.”
Patrick Cain, Global News
The neighbours’ stereo is pounding, midnight has come and gone, you’re mad as hell and you’re not going to take it any more.
Who are you going to call? Mostly, after 6pm or so, Toronto residents pass up the chance to talk to the helpful folks at the 311 line – the municipal one-stop-shop service for a range of issues from potholes to parking – and just call the police, hoping to bring an abrupt and (from one point of view) satisfying end to the party.
Read the full story here.
Leslie Young, Global News
The past few decades have been good to British Columbia’s humpback and sperm whales. But the province’s boreal caribou and a tiny, vital smelt species are not doing so well.
The data, released in February 2013 on the province’s Data BC website, ranks vertebrates by their conservation status. Species are assessed on three major factors, according to Eric Lofroth, manager of the B.C. Conservation Data Centre: their population numbers, threats to the organism, and trends in the organism’s population and habitat.
But declining population numbers don’t necessarily mean an animal’s protected: A high-risk ranking might place an animal on the lists of species that require special consideration – meaning flagging them for further investigation, but wouldn’t confer “endangered” status.
Read the full story here.
TORONTO — Jodi Aslin is 41 years old and seven months pregnant.
In Ontario, she’s no longer an anomaly.
Ms. Aslin was in no rush to start a family: She spent her 20s studying social work and teaching English in Korea, and met her husband at 34. A year later, they decided they wanted children.
It took almost five years and more than $20,000 in fertility treatments, but her daughter Jamie is now two years old. Ms. Aslin’s second child is due in April.
“We recognize that we’re in the older crowd, but we’re happy. I feel great.”
Full story and interactive here.
a business of misfits 