Emergency session

Thunder Bay’s deputy police chief says he’s not sure what the short-term ramifications will be when OxyContin disappears from city streets over the next few months.

Certainly demand for the drug will drive up prices and there will likely be consequences until the supply dries up completely, Andy Hay said Thursday, after a hastily called strategy session to deal with the problem that brought together health, police and drug strategy officials to discuss what could be looming.

“Any time the demand for a drug or the price increases, the associated risks socially increase too,” said Hay, after the hour-long emergency meeting concluded.

“But you have to remember too, we’re talking about a drug that will no longer be available. So within a 30 to 60 to 90 days time, that drug will no longer be available, so that risk will be eliminated at that point. It will go on to some other drug that will carry the same potential.”

Still, until then, once it is delisted on March 1, it will garner a higher demand on the streets, Hay admitted.

He’s less concerned, criminally speaking, with what will happen to addicts who can no longer get their fix.

Hay said it’s unlikely the withdrawal symptoms will result in more work for the police force.

“I don’t know that the withdrawal will lead to more crime, but I think definitely with the withdrawal that you’re looking at more health care needs,” Hay said. “There are going to be people in need that are going to be in more of a health crisis. As far as withdrawal, that always raises concerns about other things, whether they’re going to get the proper health they need.

“There’s also the psychological effect on families, they’re employments, suicide. All of these things become an issue with withdrawal, not just the criminal aspect.”

Long-term, Hay has higher hopes.

“Hopefully it will eliminate much of the crime that’s in the community,” he said, “and the OxyContin scourge in Thunder Bay will be effectively lessened.”

Health officials say the company that manufactures its replacement, OxyNeo, has put safeguards in place to ensure it won’t be as easily illicitly used.

“It is being marketed as less easily tamperable, so people can’t divert it, crush it, inject it as easily,” said Patty Hajdu, the city’s drug strategy co-ordinator, adding both the Ontario Drug Benefit Plan and Health Canada are changing the way people can access OxyNeo.

“The process to access it is far more restrictive. It can take up to three months for people to access that prescription. So it’s going to be much more difficult for people to access it in prescription form.”

She acknowledged the tighter controls could hurt those who actually need the drug for pain management.

“But there are other very effective opiate-based medications that physicians are able to prescribe and hopefully we’ll be able to work with physicians in the community to do some education, and I’m sure there’s some processes going through their governing body as well,” Hajdu said, blaming pharmaceutical marketing of the benefits and safety of OxyContin, and not the doctors who prescribed the drugs, for the current abuse problem."

Police are unsure what drug might replace OxyContin on the addiction chart in Northwestern Ontario, where some First Nation’s communities claim up to 80 per cent of the population is addicted and have called on governments of all levels to be proactive before the drug is taken off the shelves next week.

“Heroin could be a possibility,” Hay said, “although heroin really isn’t a familiar drug in Thunder Bay. We expect other drugs other than heroin. Drug dependent people are very creative, so there are a lot of drugs out there that are over-the-shelf, prescription drugs that are used illegally for improper purposes.”

Coun. Rebecca Johnson, who attended the meeting, said police have identified an issue facing the community and decided to be proactive about it, rather than reactive.

“I think that’s very commendable of them,” Johnson said. “I think from here now what we have to do is enlarge that. It’s a community issue and it’s been identified as such, and we have to look at how we can put some education in place as well as try to address the issues that are going to become imminent in our community.”

According to the Ontario Addiction Helpline, OxyContin rates at rehab centres have tripled in recent years.