Will contaminated street drugs hurt progress in the fight against opioids?

The Nova Scotia government says its strategy to fight deadly opioid addiction has been paying off but with opioid-laced street drugs expected to hit the East Coast, the province's chief medical officer of health warnsnow is not the time to be complacent.

Other provinces such as British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario are seeing a "substantive" increase in deaths due to street drugs that are contaminated withopioids, said Dr. Robert Strang.

"We are seeing this west to east movement," he said, adding opioid-laced drugs "would create significantly increased risks."

About 60 people have died each year in Nova Scotia due toopioidoverdoses since 2011. Last year, the province released itsopioidframework, focusing onprevention, harm reduction, treatment and law enforcement.

Speaking Friday in Truro, Health Minister Randy Deloreysaid theprovince has eliminated waits for methadone treatment in the Halifax area and significantly reduced the wait-list in other parts of the province.

He said treatment services have expanded to communities that previously didn't have them, and there's been a dramatic increase in the distribution of clean-needle exchanges.

Karen Kittilsen Levine, the harm reduction co-ordinator at the Northern Healthy Connections Society, said the number of syringes distributed in northern Nova Scotia increased from about 29,000 in 2016-17 to 95,000 in 2017-18.

She expects that number to rise to at least 150,000 by the end of this fiscal year. About 43 per cent of the needles distributed in northern Nova Scotia went to Pictou County.

"The opioid crisis is not just in Vancouver or in large cities like Toronto and Calgary," Kittilsen Levine said."It's here at home."

Naloxonekits distributed through pharmacies have reversed 90 opioid overdoses in the province since January 2016, and kitsadministered through police and paramedics reversed an additional 21.

Wait-list reduction saves lives

Dr. Sam Hickcox, an addictions specialist and family physician based in Halifax, said he's seen a difference on the front lines of fighting addiction.

"The real change I've noticed is when I encounter someone who's seeking help with opioid addiction, rather than saying, 'I'm sorry, you're just going to have to wait, see you later. Go out tothe streets, maybe in 30 days you'll have an appointmentto see somebody, and maybe at that point you can get on a medication,' nowit's, 'Well, let's take you in right now and get started.'"

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Hickcoxsaid the reduction in wait times can be a matter of life or death for some patients.

"What that means is that you have someone who is desperate, suicidal, at great risk of dying froman opioid overdose every day that they're waiting to get treatment, it'slike a ticking time bomb. And there's a death rate there.

"It's kind of like having cancer. You're waiting to get radiotherapy or chemotherapy and every day that you wait makes your prognosis worse."