Roots of opioid crisis run deep, with fentanyl an ‘epidemic within an epidemic’
TORONTO — Canada is in the midst of an epidemic of opioid use and abuse — involving both prescription and illicit forms of the potent narcotics — that shows no signs of abating and has led to an explosion of fatal overdoses.
So pervasive is the problem that it has become part of the Canadian consciousness and left doctors, public health officials and politicians scrambling to find solutions to contain the crisis.
Canadians remain the second highest per-capita consumers of opioids in the world, after Americans. But while U.S. use is beginning to decline, Canada’s numbers keep rising, according to the International Narcotic Control Board, which monitors countries’ prescribing levels.
“We doubt very much that it has to do with Canadians being different, having more pain than people elsewhere in the world. We think it probably has to do with how we’ve been programmed to prescribe,” says Dr. Jamie Meuser, executive director of professional development and practice for the College of Family Physicians of Canada.