Belleville Police, civic, health, fire and paramedic authorities raised alarm bells, warning residents of a dramatic spike in drug poisonings in the city.
In the first nine days of November, Belleville General Hospital (BGH) provided support to 42 people who overdosed in the community.
And last week, 90 overdose calls were made. This is a stark contrast to the average number of five to 10 per week.
On the MIX Morning Show, Sean Kelly and Mariam Serkal invited Belleville Police Chief Mike Callaghan to discuss the worrying crisis.
“Some of them are fentanyl that are laced with GHP and some of them are heroin that are laced with GHP,” said Chief Callaghan.
GHP (gamma-hydroxybutyrate), also known as the date rape drug, is a type of depressant for the nervous system that mixed with fentanyl and other contaminants can be fatal.
Also in Studio 97 were Dr Julie Gowthorpe, RSW and Dr Mariam Harrison, an ICU doctor from BGH, who were invited to join in on the topic.
“Addiction is a disorder but rather than treating it like a disorder, we treat it like it’s a behavioural problem of difficult people not doing what they need to do. We blame them because addiction makes people very hard to tolerate. Addicts can be hard to like,” said Dr Gowthorpe.
Intervention is key. The stigma that goes with addiction prevents people from getting help. The lack of resources to detox in a medical way because it is a medical problem, prevents people from getting to sobriety.
When you try to find a rehab centre, most often people have to be clean – detoxed. There seems to be no money to help people overcome the hurdle of the pain that goes from detoxing off drugs, which made billions of dollars for the pharmaceutical industry.
