Ontario expands use of Suboxone as part of new provincial opioid strategy
TORONTO — Ontario will expand use of the drug Suboxone as an alternative to methadone to treat people addicted to opioids as part of a new provincial strategy to combat an increasing number of overdoses and deaths.
There are an estimated 50,000 addicts currently getting methadone treatment in Ontario, which saw 700 deaths from opioid overdoses in 2014. Opioid use has become the third leading cause of accidental death in Ontario, ahead of car accidents, said Health Minister Eric Hoskins.
He calls the situation a “public health crisis,” and says family physicians, and eventually nurse practioners, will be able to prescribe Suboxone instead of referring addicts to methadone clinics.
“Providing Suboxone as a first line of treatment within a primary care environment, with that supportive care, is actually going to provide … an astronomically better level of care for these individuals than is currently available at freestanding methadone clinics,” Hoskins said at Toronto General Hospital.