POLICE ASSOCIATION OF NOVA SCOTIA 61 As originally published In the News... Oxy abuse eases, officials say C.B. health authority head, cops agree partnership working SYDNEY - The CEO of the Cape Breton district health authority says a community partnership on prescription drug abuse has made a "significant impact" in the number of oxycontin prescriptions issued in Cape Breton. "There was a substantially lower amounts of the drug (oxycontin) prescribed in Cape Breton in 2004 than in the previous year, and that was partly due to education the community partnership organized with physicians and pharmacists," Mr. Malcom said in an interview Wednesday following the release of the group's first annual report. Statistics in the report confirm that Cape Breton doctors prescribed oxycontin 11,498 times in 2003 and 10,674 times in 2004, a difference of 824 prescriptions or 7.2 per cent less. Meanwhile, doctors around the province handed out 28,033 oxycontin prescriptions in 2003 and 29,352 in 2004, an increase of 1,319 or 4.7 per cent. Mr. Malcom said a new methadone clinic at the Cape Breton Regional Hospital has "turned a lot of lives around" and meant "a number of addicts are no longer looking for the drug." According to the annual report, 85 people have been treated at the clinic since it opened last December and there are another 50 on the waiting list. The partnership - with 50 volunteer representatives from the health authority, the CBRM police force, RCMP, Cape Breton University, the Justice Department and the medical and pharmacy communities - is "unprecedented," Mr. Malcom said. "I've been in this business for 25 years and I've never sat across the table from an RCMP drug enforcement officer," he said. "They live in a different world. He told us things we needed to hear." The committee came together in March 2004 following a series of sudden deaths in Cape Breton that were attributed to oxycontin, a powerful painkiller often used by cancer patients. "Oxycontin hit us like a tidal wave, but there were warning signs that we might have picked up on. We don't want to get caught unprepared again with the next drug of choice," Mr. Malcom said. Cape Breton Regional Police Chief Edgar MacLeod said his officers are seeing a difference in the amount of the drug on the streets. "It's still available, but not to the extent that it was," he said. "The rate of death seems to be going down, but it’s still very early in the process," he cautioned. The methadone clinic meant the problem of prescription drug abuse was "acknowledged by the government." The partnership has made a difference in the way prescription drug abuse is dealt with in the CBRM, the police chief said. "It's an effort that has crossed all community boundaries. We still have a long way to go, but we've made lots of progress. We're more encouraged about the future," he said. By Jocelyn Bethune - The Halifax Herald, July 28, 2005
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