Latest news with #GillianKolla
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Despite 'massive shift' towards smoking over injection, Ontario has only 1 supervised drug inhalation space
Advocates and researchers say Ontario is far behind when it comes to protecting the growing number of drug users in the province who are choosing to inhale opioids rather than inject them. "We know what we need to help support people who smoke their drugs — and we've been really, really behind the curve on it," said Gillian Kolla, an assistant professor of medicine at Memorial University, who studies drug use across Canada. Data shared with CBC Toronto last week from the Ontario Office of the Chief Coroner shows that in 2024, just four per cent of deadly opioid overdoses are thought to have been caused by injection alone — down from 20 per cent in 2018. That's the opposite trajectory of the statistics for inhalation alone, which are thought to be responsible for 40 per cent of last year's fatal overdoses — up from 18 per cent in 2018. Though Kolla cautioned that the coroner's data has some uncertainty baked in, since about half of overdose fatalities are listed as having no evidence at all as to what consumption method was used, she said the growing move toward inhalation has been a clear trend in Canada for years. Opioid toxicity deaths in Ontario where inhalation was the only mode of usenearly doubled between 2017 and 2021, according to a study carried out by Kolla and academic colleagues. "We have multiple sources of data that are telling us about this," she told CBC Toronto. "We can see it when we talk to harm reduction programs which distribute equipment to people who use drugs," Kolla said. "And when we talk to people who use drugs about how their use is changing, they are also talking about how they have been moving more towards smoking." The growing need for safer ways to inhale drugs has long been obvious to Joanne Simons, Casey House CEO. Her specialty Toronto hospital, which serves people who have HIV or are at risk of it, runs the province's only supervised inhalation booth, installed in 2021. "It's a very simple setup," Simons said of the small room. "There isn't anything super technical about it other than a very powerful fan that is venting any of the smoke outside of the building." She said the hospital decided to open the booth in the first place because clientele were requesting it, and that since then, about 80 per cent of the people who arrive to use supervised consumption services at Casey House are choosing to inhale over inject. "We're thinking about doing a second one because the need is so great," said Simons, describing the move toward smoking as a "massive shift." Ontario's 2019 consumption and treatment services plan, which approved 15 supervised consumption sites in the province, did not include funding for inhalation booths. At a price tag that Simons estimates around $50,000, that means only supervised consumption services that can solicit private funding and donations — like Casey House — can foot the bill to build one. "Since we've installed it, we have had consistent interest from [other health centres] across the country, in terms of what it does," said Simons. "I think the barrier to entry actually is the funds." The government "does not and will never support the use of illicit drugs in public spaces," said a spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones in a statement. "Our focus is on connecting people struggling with addictions challenges to treatment and recovery, not giving them the tools to use toxic, illegal drugs," Ema Popovic said via email. A couple of kilometres south of Casey House, at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions in St. Michael's Hospital in downtown Toronto, Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi has been examining the health implications of the shift towards inhalation. The researchers and advocates that spoke to CBC Toronto for this story all said that part of what's been driving changing habits is the belief among people who use drugs that it's safer. So, is it? When it comes to the risks posed by needles specifically, Bayoumi says inhalation would "clearly be safer" since it dodges the possibility of infection via dirty equipment. The risk of overdose may also be lower, he said. "There is some evidence that … the rate at which the drugs accumulate in the blood is slower with smoking than it is with injecting, which allows people to control the amount of drug that they're taking in more precisely," said Bayoumi. Calls to fund safe inhalation sites have been ongoing since Liberal Kathleen Wynne was premier in the mid 2010s, said Zoë Dodd, co-organizer of the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society. Dodd said her organization set up a supervised inhalation tent in Moss Park in 2017, where they operated unsanctioned for a year. Eventually, they moved indoors and had to give up the tent. "We saw thousands of people through that service. And we reversed many, many overdoses within that tent itself," she said, adding that now, she and other harm reduction workers have to run outside when they're alerted to an inhalation overdose. This spring, Doug Ford's government closed nine supervised drug consumption sites and transitioned them into HART Hubs, their new concept for treating addiction and homelessness. The province invested over $500 million to build 28 HART Hubs across the province, according to the health minister's spokesperson. "HART Hubs will reflect regional priorities, providing community-based, life-saving services including mental health and addiction care, primary care, social and employment services," Popovic said. Data from the coroner shows more than 2,200 Ontarians died from opioids in 2024 – a slight dip from the last few years – and more than triple the deaths from a decade ago.
CBC
18 hours ago
- Health
- CBC
Despite 'massive shift' towards smoking over injection, Ontario has only 1 supervised drug inhalation space
Advocates and researchers say Ontario is far behind when it comes to protecting the growing number of drug users in the province who are choosing to inhale opioids rather than inject them. "We know what we need to help support people who smoke their drugs — and we've been really, really behind the curve on it," said Gillian Kolla, an assistant professor of medicine at Memorial University, who studies drug use across Canada. Data shared with CBC Toronto last week from the Ontario Office of the Chief Coroner shows that in 2024, just four per cent of deadly opioid overdoses are thought to have been caused by injection alone — down from 20 per cent in 2018. That's the opposite trajectory of the statistics for inhalation alone, which are thought to be responsible for 40 per cent of last year's fatal overdoses — up from 18 per cent in 2018. Though Kolla cautioned that the coroner's data has some uncertainty baked in, since about half of overdose fatalities are listed as having no evidence at all as to what consumption method was used, she said the growing move toward inhalation has been a clear trend in Canada for years. Opioid toxicity deaths in Ontario where inhalation was the only mode of use nearly doubled between 2017 and 2021, according to a study carried out by Kolla and academic colleagues. "We have multiple sources of data that are telling us about this," she told CBC Toronto. "We can see it when we talk to harm reduction programs which distribute equipment to people who use drugs," Kolla said. "And when we talk to people who use drugs about how their use is changing, they are also talking about how they have been moving more towards smoking." Ontario's only supervised inhalation booth The growing need for safer ways to inhale drugs has long been obvious to Joanne Simons, Casey House CEO. Her specialty Toronto hospital, which serves people who have HIV or are at risk of it, runs the province's only supervised inhalation booth, installed in 2021. "It's a very simple setup," Simons said of the small room. "There isn't anything super technical about it other than a very powerful fan that is venting any of the smoke outside of the building." She said the hospital decided to open the booth in the first place because clientele were requesting it, and that since then, about 80 per cent of the people who arrive to use supervised consumption services at Casey House are choosing to inhale over inject. "We're thinking about doing a second one because the need is so great," said Simons, describing the move toward smoking as a "massive shift." Ontario's 2019 consumption and treatment services plan, which approved 15 supervised consumption sites in the province, did not include funding for inhalation booths. At a price tag that Simons estimates around $50,000, that means only supervised consumption services that can solicit private funding and donations — like Casey House — can foot the bill to build one. "Since we've installed it, we have had consistent interest from [other health centres] across the country, in terms of what it does," said Simons. "I think the barrier to entry actually is the funds." The government "does not and will never support the use of illicit drugs in public spaces," said a spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones in a statement. "Our focus is on connecting people struggling with addictions challenges to treatment and recovery, not giving them the tools to use toxic, illegal drugs," Ema Popovic said via email. The safety question A couple of kilometres south of Casey House, at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions in St. Michael's Hospital in downtown Toronto, Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi has been examining the health implications of the shift towards inhalation. The researchers and advocates that spoke to CBC Toronto for this story all said that part of what's been driving changing habits is the belief among people who use drugs that it's safer. So, is it? When it comes to the risks posed by needles specifically, Bayoumi says inhalation would "clearly be safer" since it dodges the possibility of infection via dirty equipment. The risk of overdose may also be lower, he said. "There is some evidence that … the rate at which the drugs accumulate in the blood is slower with smoking than it is with injecting, which allows people to control the amount of drug that they're taking in more precisely," said Bayoumi. Shifting provincial policy Calls to fund safe inhalation sites have been ongoing since Liberal Kathleen Wynne was premier in the mid 2010s, said Zo ë Dodd, co-organizer of the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society. Dodd said her organization set up a supervised inhalation tent in Moss Park in 2017, where they operated unsanctioned for a year. Eventually, they moved indoors and had to give up the tent. "We saw thousands of people through that service. And we reversed many, many overdoses within that tent itself," she said, adding that now, she and other harm reduction workers have to run outside when they're alerted to an inhalation overdose. This spring, Doug Ford's government closed nine supervised drug consumption sites and transitioned them into HART Hubs, their new concept for treating addiction and homelessness. The province invested over $500 million to build 28 HART Hubs across the province, according to the health minister's spokesperson. "HART Hubs will reflect regional priorities, providing community-based, life-saving services including mental health and addiction care, primary care, social and employment services," Popovic said.
CBC
09-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Massive St. John's fentanyl bust a 'canary in the coal mine' for danger to come, prof says
A Memorial University researcher says the jaw-dropping amount of fentanyl police say they've seized from a St. John's trailer is a bellwether for danger to come. "It would be important to look at this possibly as a canary in the coal mine," says Gillian Kolla, an assistant professor of public health. "There have been increases in fentanyl-related deaths in Newfoundland and Labrador and across Atlantic Canada over the past couple of years ... it's really, really important right now to be thinking about the strategies that we can put in place upstream to prevent overdose related deaths." The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary on Wednesday announced the lab results of a bust in Cochrane Pond Park in September. Police said they'd seized hundreds of grams of fentanyl and similar opiates — far more, said Deputy Chief Colin McNeil, than the force had ever seen. But Kolla says busts like that one can actually cause a spike in overdoses in nearby areas. WATCH | Amount of fentanyl should be a warning sign, researcher says: After record fentanyl bust, this MUN researcher warns of a canary in the coal mine 24 minutes ago Duration 2:37 A public health researcher says the amount of fentanyl found in St. John's last fall is a glaring warning sign of danger to come. As Here and Now's Malone Mullin reports, removing those drugs from the street might not be the safest way to keep people alive. "There's something actually known as the drug bust paradox," Kolla said. "Community members think that bringing drugs off the street, and this type of drug bust, is a positive. In fact, we have very strong public health research that shows that often in the wake of drug busts like this, opioid-related overdose deaths increase." That's likely because people with addictions are forced to turn to other sources of supply and buy from dealers they aren't familiar with, she explains. When people don't know how strong their drugs are, their risk for overdoses goes up. "Policing and enforcement and drug busts don't stop people who are dependent on opioids from needing opioids. What they do is they force them into more difficult situations," she said. Whack-a-mole problem Heavy policing can also contribute to making illicit drugs more lethal in the long run, she adds, referring to an idea called the "iron law of prohibition" — the idea that drug dealers will only get craftier as time goes on. "It incentivizes them to actually focus on drugs that are more potent, therefore of lesser volume, that [are easier] to evade detection with," she said. "This is part of the reason why we think we've seen this move across North America from heroin, which is bulkier but less potent, to fentanyl, which is [easier] to transport because it's more potent. You can use a smaller amount to get the same impact as a larger amount of heroin." That theory also explains why fentanyl analogs such as carfentanil are showing up more frequently, she adds. The lack of evidence showing policing helps with drug-related harm should motivate governments to fund harm reduction programs instead, according to Kolla: safe consumption sites, medicines and safe supply have all been widely shown to prevent deaths. Two suspects not in custody McNeil told reporters Wednesday that the RNC collaborates with community partners "quite regularly" when officers turn up a large amount of illicit drugs. "We're dealing with the people in health, our support groups that are not for profit ... interacting with the vulnerable members of our public on our streets," McNeil said in response to a question about how the force mitigates overdose risk in the general population. "We engage in education activities and initiatives, you know, internally and externally. We're also speaking to our own members about the dangers of these things and making sure that we're all protected." Police twigged to the Cochrane Pond manufacturing operation in February 2024, and executed search warrants on three properties on Sept. 23 of that year, according to a December 2024 affidavit by RNC Const. Evan Farrell. That court document offers a glimpse into the complexity of the probe. Farrell said investigators had sent 120 samples of the seized drugs to a Health Canada lab for analysis. "The number of samples obtained ... was very large," Farrell wrote in his request to a judge to continue to hold onto the seized evidence. "Laying charges prior to the completion of the analysis of all samples would cause an incomplete investigation." That affidavit has not been tested in court. Emma Murphy, 24, and Martin Marks, 29, face over 80 charges between them. They have not yet made their first court appearance, according to RNC spokesperson Danielle Barron, and are not currently in custody. They were released on notices to appear in provincial court on July 8. Chris Somerton, who police say was the duo's drug runner, will appear June 17 on trafficking charges.
