New Brunswick government to buy naloxone kits for front-line addiction workers

The New Brunswick government will buy about 2,500 naloxone kits to be distributed to front-line addiction workers throughout the province, in response to the growing opioid use epidemic in Canada.

The government will spend $150,000 to buy the kits, which will be distributed through needle exchange programs with AIDS New Brunswick, SIDA/AIDS Moncton and AIDS Saint John, as well as withdrawal management services.

Naloxone is used to reverse the effects of opioids such as fentanyl, which has contributed to hundreds of overdose deaths in Canada this year.

• Accidental opioid overdoses killed 23 people in New Brunswick last year
• N.B. hospitals record at least 47 opioid overdoses since March

Police and emergency responders have access to the kits through the province, but the government had not decided on wider distribution until now.

Just last week, Julie Dingwell, the head of AIDS Saint John, criticized what she saw as a slow response to the opioid problem.

Twenty-three people died in 2016 as a result of accidental drug overdoses involving addictive opioids, according to a report released by the provincial government in the spring.

Across the country, 2,458 people died from opioid-related overdoses last year alone, according to the federal Public Health Agency of Canada.

In the first six months of this year, there have been 17 opioid related deaths, 15 of which were accidental, according to data from the province. 

No new numbers, but demographic getting younger 

The province's naloxone initiative was announced Wednesday afternoon at a news conference with acting chief medical officer of health Jennifer Russell and Health Minister Benoît Bourque.

Russell couldn't provides the latest numbers of drug-related deaths in the province on Wednesday. 

But she did say that though the numbers haven't spiked, the age of those overdosing is getting younger.

"There's a shift in the demographic of who is overdosing, and within that demographic we are seeing a shift from non-illicit opioids, to illicit opioids, so that is the trend we're seeing right now," she said. 

Matthew Smith, executive director of AIDS New Brunswick, said the program was tremendously important.

He said his organization has had clients of its needle exchange program die from opioid overdoes in the last year. 

"This is something that is actually happening in our community. We know this is here."