POLICE ASSOCIATION OF NOVA SCOTIA 59 In the News... OxyContin abuse targeted A unique partnership of agencies dealing with OxyContin abuse in Cape Breton, which received a grant from the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation on Tuesday, hopes to find out why the problem seems to have taken hold in the region. But members of the Community Partnership on Prescription Drug Abuse say the team they’ve created is a success in itself. The partnership, led by Jane Lewis, Cape Breton University dean of education, health and wellness, received a $20,000 grant from a total of $4 million the foundation awarded to dozens of research projects. “The more I am involved, the more I think the model itself is a significant outcome,” Ms. Lewis said in Halifax Tuesday. Chief Edgar MacLeod of Cape Breton Regional Police said he’s thrilled officers are involved in the research alongside teacher, social workers and physicians. “Out of the struggles of prescription drug abuse, we have before us an opportunity to become leaders in how to respond to this kind of problem,” he said. “Working together in this kind of a structure is exciting.” The community partnership includes the university, the Cape Breton Regional Police and RCMP, the Cape Breton-Victoria regional school board, doctors, pharmacists, native groups and representatives of the provincial departments of Health, Justice and Community Services. Mr. MacLeod said creating safe and healthy communities is as important to police as law enforcement. “It’s more that just a crime issue,” he said. “We deal with the fallout. We deal with victims, we deal with the children.” Ms. Lewis said the funding will help the group transform an internal website into a public resource and complete a study of the scope of OxyContin abuse in the area. A series of deaths in Cape Breton in early 2004 were linked to the abuse of prescription drugs. As far as he knows, no one is making crystal meth in the Halifax area. But it’s coming. “We’re getting ourselves prepared,” he said. The Halifax Herald, July 28, 2005 News Release: Department of Health The province of Nova Scotia has taken another step in managing prescription drug abuse with the proclamation of the Prescription Monitoring Act on July 5, 2005. A board was appointed to oversee the province's Prescription Monitoring Program. Board members will represent pharmacists, physicians and dentists, as well as the Department of Health and the public. Acting Health Minister Jamie Muir says that the monitoring program is a major part of an integrated response to deal with prescription drug abuse in our communities. Contact: Michelle Lucas Department of Health 902-424-3731 E-mail: lucasmx@gov.ns.ca This page and all contents Crown copyright © 2006, Province of Nova Scotia, all rights reserved. Please send comments to Communications Nova Scotia: release@gov.ns.ca As originally published
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0NTk1OA==