Sudbury pharmacist reflects on opioid crisis on International Overdose Awareness Day

A Sudbury pharmacist has had to change how she talks to clients about opioids due to the growing crisis involving the drug in the community.

"Our role as a pharmacist has changed significantly in the last few years," saidCatherine Nolin, a pharmacist who owns two Shoppers Drug Marts in Sudbury.

"But as pharmacistswe play a really important role in education and awareness, especially around opioids and the potential for overdose," she added.

"We provide this information on medications on a daily basis, but it's particularly important to share with our patients the risk of taking prescribed opioids."

International Overdose Awareness Day is marked onAug. 31.

According to Public Health Sudbury and Districts, Greater Sudbury Paramedic Services responded to 492suspected opioid-related incidents betweenJanuary and July this year.

In 2020, there were more than 2,000 opioid-related deaths in Ontario.

Per capita, the area covered by the Sudbury health unit had the most opioid-related deaths in the province.

Public Health Sudbury and Districts reported 105 opioid-related deaths in the region for 2020, although numbers for the latter half of the year are based on preliminary data.

The province of Ontario declared a state of emergency onMarch 17, 2020, due to the growing opioid crisis.

"We've definitely seen an increase," Nolin said. "I think the number is around 79 per cent increase in the number of opioid related deaths in the province."

Nolin said one role pharmacists have taken on has been to educate their clients on how to use naloxone kits, which can save a person's life if they are experiencing an overdose.

"They're free of charge at your pharmacy," she said. "You can just ask the pharmacist. It takes anywhere between five to 20 minutes to get fully trained. So anyone who is using opioids, anyone who might be a family member or a friend is someone who is using opioids, can come get a kit at any pharmacy."

Opioid crisis victims remembered

In October 2020, Denise Sandul placed a wooden cross at the intersection of Paris and Brady Streets, in downtown Sudbury, in honour of her 22-year-old son, Myles Keaney, who died in September of that year.

Since then, the memorial has grown to include more than 150 crosses to recognize the lives lost to the opioid epidemic in Greater Sudbury.

"Our family gravitated to where he was found," Sandultold the CBC at the time. "We started with some flowers, and then eventually we just decided to put a cross."