While the Alberta government and the federal Conservative Party claim the province’s recovery-oriented model of care is the reason fatal drug poisonings have dropped by nearly 50 percent in one year, the statistic does not shows the full picture, as shown by analysis of cumulative data.
from alberta recovery-oriented approach includes residential addiction treatment, narcotic transition services to help people reduce opioid and narcotic dependency; and opioid agonist therapy, which involves the use of drugs such as methadone to minimize withdrawal symptoms.
The province also distributes naloxone, offers a mobile phone app that sends medical assistance to people unresponsive while taking drugs, and operates seven supervised consumption sites.
According to the United Conservative Party of Alberta and the Conservative Party of Canada, the approach is responsible for overdose deaths falling by 50 percent between the record high of November 2021 and the much lower number of August.
recently in ParliamentPierre Poilievre, leader of the opposition and a Federal Conservative, applauded the Alberta policy.
“Do you know the result of that approach?” she questioned: “They have cut overdoses in half. They are saving lives, showing that there is always hope.”
Poilievre echoed those sentiments in a recent five-minute video posted to social media titled “Everything Feels Broken,” where he also says that drug addiction is the “result of a failed experiment” by regulated drug programs. drug supply.
“This is a deliberate policy by the Liberal and NDP governments to provide tax-funded drugs to flood our streets with easy access to these poisons,” Poilievre said in the video.
The alternative, he says, is Alberta’s successful model of recovery-oriented care.
“Today in Alberta, they’ve managed to cut overdose deaths by almost half by getting people back on their feet.”
Caroyln Bennett, the federal minister for mental health and addictions, responded to Poilievre’s video on social media to refute his claims that “there is no such thing as a safe supply of these drugs.”
“This is not true,” Bennett tweeted. “The evidence is clear on this. Safe supply saves lives. We cannot afford to return to a harmful and unscientific ideology at the expense of people’s lives.”
And, while addressing the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on November 18, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith he also used the statistic to reassure the ward of Calgarians that the UCP government’s recovery-based model of care was working.
“The approach we are taking has reduced opioid deaths by 51% year over year. We have reduced hospitalizations by 33 percent. We have reduced the number of ambulance visits by 39 percent and we are going to continue to do so,” he said.
THE DATA
Opioid-related deaths in Alberta have been on a downward trend through 2022. February saw a peak of 168 deaths, while March through May saw about 120 per month. From June to August it stayed below the 100 death mark.
But when you compare the highest number of opioid-related deaths in Alberta’s history last November (174) to the most recent month of available data for August of this year (94), there’s a 46 percent decrease, not 51 percent as the UCP and Poilievre have announced.
If all drug-related deaths are taken into account, not just opioid-related, there is a 47 percent decrease.
There is actually a seven percent increase when you compare the number of opioid-related deaths that occurred in the first eight months of 2021 (969) to the same period in 2022 (976). The monthly averages based on the first eight months of data are also nearly identical.
More than 120 Albertans died from opioid-related drug poisoning in August 2021 compared to 94 in 2022, marking a 25 percent decrease. An average of 76 people died from opioid-related overdoses in the month of August in the years 2016 to 2022, meaning that while there were fewer opioid-related deaths this year than in 2021 and 2020, the number is still higher the seven-year average. .
When asked why the Alberta government most often uses November 2021, the month with the highest number of recorded deaths, as a benchmark, a spokesperson justified the comparison.
“Opioid-related deaths in August are down 46% from their peak in November 2021. August also marks the third consecutive month that opioid-related deaths have remained below 100 in the province, and these three months are the lowest recorded since then. the beginning of the pandemic,” Colin Aitchison, press secretary for the minister for mental health and addictions, said in a statement.
“This is a significant decline in opioid-related deaths and we are cautiously optimistic that this trend will continue.”
THE DECREASE IN DEATHS MAY BE DUE TO VARIOUS FACTORS
The decline in overdose deaths in Calgary may have something to do with a lower level of drug toxicity, believes Euan Thomson, executive director of EACH+EVERY, a coalition of companies that favor drug reduction strategies. damage.
Thomson has years of experience working in both Alberta and British Columbia.
He compared the number of reverse overdoses at Safeworks, a supervised consumption site in Calgary, the levels of toxicity in drugs seized and tested in Alberta, and the number of poisoning deaths in the city to see how they might affect each other. It uses data from this particular site because it has been publicly accessible since 2017.
“At Safeworks, we hit a peak of eight percent of people walking through those doors experiencing an overdose in December 2021, which also coincided with the peak of our drug toxicity deaths in Calgary,” he told CTV News Edmonton.
“Since that time, we have fallen below three percent and even lower now in terms of the overdose rate at Safeworks.”
He says the number of reverse overdoses at the supervised use site dropped along with the number of deaths from drug poisoning throughout the year.
A family doctor who practices in Edmonton’s core and cares for people who use drugs says there are many possible reasons drug poisoning deaths are declining, including seasonal fluctuations and a stabilization in the drug supply.
“There may have been a point where there aren’t many more people at risk, so that’s also a possibility,” said Dr. Ginetta Salvalaggio.
Salvalaggio says it would be premature to attribute a decline in deaths to the Alberta government’s recovery-oriented model of care.
“They have not subjected that (claim) to rigorous study. No one has published data showing that,” he said. “Before we make pronouncements like that, we had better have proof. I do not see it.
If the drop in deaths is indeed attributable to Alberta’s strategy, Salvalaggio would like to know why Alberta’s trends mirror those of other provinces with different policies.
According to data available through the Government of Canada’s Health Infobase, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario have seen a similar trend in opioid-related deaths over the past six years, even more recently when all three provinces saw a drop in deaths. in the first quarter of 2022.
Aitchison did not respond to CTV News Edmonton requesting data to show that the decline in deaths in Alberta was a direct result of the government’s approach.
Instead, he provided a list of steps the government is taking, saying in part, “this includes work over the last three years to establish 8,000 new spaces, eliminate user fees, launch the Digital Overdose Response System (DORS) and offer the same. day treatment with the award-winning Virtual Opioid Dependence Program (VODP).”
A REGULATED DRUG ALTERNATIVE
Thomson would like to see the provincial government include drug toxicity data to decide how to most effectively address the crisis.
“This is the kind of data we should be basing policy on, but instead, we’ve chosen a policy and now we’re trying to adjust the data to justify that policy,” he said.
Thomson says that what is needed most is a low-barrier, regulated supply.
“Worry about all the other interventions afterward,” he suggested. “First let’s focus on keeping people alive with regulated versions of the drugs they are using anyway.”
Dr. Salvalaggio says her patients also tell her they are concerned about the level of toxicity in the drug supply, the lack of a regulated alternative, as well as the lack of access to community support.
“The social stability necessary to access these services, the total and utter lack of attention to housing, the disorganization of the camps, etc.,” he said. “You can’t ask people to get into a care pathway that’s been prescribed for them if you don’t give them any support, even if they want that treatment.”
The provincial government has yet to release the number of deaths from drug poisoning in Alberta in September and October.
With files from CTV News Parliamentary Office writer Spencer Van Dyk