With thousands of N.W.T. evacuees in Alberta, local experts fear impact of toxic drug crisis – CBC

Advocates have created resources to help recovering drug users arriving in Alberta

Aug 20, 2023

A small group of health-care workers in Alberta is working to inform wildfire evacuees from the Northwest Territories about where to access common medications for opioid-use disorder in Calgary and Edmonton.

Missing even a day of medications causes withdrawal symptoms, while several days without increases the risk of relapsing for otherwise stable patients — which means more people at risk of dying from the toxic street drug supply, says Dr. Kate Colizza, an addiction medicine and internal medicine physician in Calgary.

“It’s not the type of medication where a lot of people can plan ahead or have extras available,” said Colizza, who created fliers listing opioid agonist therapy (OAT) clinics and programs in the two cities.

“The issue with a lot of these medications — like Suboxone, methadone, Kadian — is that … you have to go to the pharmacy every day to pick up and take your medication.”

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/nwt-evacuees-alberta-opioid-crisis-1.6942149