Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Vancouver East for bringing this thought provoking issue to the House. Reading from her backgrounder, I want to remind the House and the Canadian public as to why the member did this. It is a problem all across the country but in her home province it is particularly bad.
I want to go through some of the numbers which the member so thoughtfully provided us with. She says that in her home riding of Vancouver East a health emergency has been declared as a result of an epidemic of HIV infection among injection drug users. She also states that in British Columbia the death toll is staggering. As of November last year a record 371 people died of overdose in 1998 alone, 195 in the Vancouver area. Those are compelling statistics.
Overdose from intravenous drug use has become the leading cause of death for adults in the age range of 30 to 49 years in the province of British Columbia. Over and above that, the leading cause of HIV infection is now IDU. It is estimated there are 15,000 regular or frequent injection drug users in the province of British Columbia alone, the member's home province.
It is estimated that one-quarter of injection drug users are HIV positive and at most 88% have hepatitis C. She also states that HIV infected drug users are showing up in larger numbers in the Kamloops and Kootenay regions. She goes through some of the numbers in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and other Canadian cities.
Those are pretty grim statistics. We have to admire the member for wanting to do something about it. I know the issue is somewhat controversial. Some members on both sides of the House have said there are other examples in other countries and jurisdictions and what has been done.
In short, the intent of the motion is to implement clinical, multi-centre heroin prescription trials and hence the controversy. It is not an easy thing to deal with.
Let us look at what the Canadian Medical Association has to say about it. I am quoting from a document sent to me today:
The CMA recommends to the federal Minister of Health that the investigation of prescription of heroin for opiate-dependent individuals follow the same approval protocol in practice for the use of any therapeutic drug in Canada; and that the CMA recommend that methadone maintenance and counselling programs be more widely available across the country with appropriate education and remuneration of professional delivering such programs. This recommendation applies also to correctional institutions.
The CMA has laid out quite clearly what it thinks of the issue and the proposal before us.
I have done some research on this. I came across what they call rapid opiate detoxification. It is something that could be considered in this case. It is a cleansing therapy that curbs heroin addiction. It is somewhat new and exciting in the treatment of this addiction. It is a treatment widely used throughout the world, but this sophisticated medical procedure has just arrived in Canada.
Thanks go to a couple of individuals, Peter Garber and Mike Greenberg. They tell us it is based on the work of psychiatrists Dr. Karl Loimer and Dr. Colin Brewer who in the late 1980s discovered that two drugs, naloxone and naltrexone, suppressed the addict's desire for heroin and other drugs such as methadone. The treatment does not purport to be a cure for heroin addiction but offers an essential and powerful first step toward achieving that objective.
They step through how this procedure works and talk about reducing withdrawal in five ways. First the process is accelerated so what used to take the body weeks to achieve on its own is now done in about six hours. Second, the body does not crave the missing narcotic because it is replaced by another substance. Third, the entire treatment is performed under anesthesia so the patient is unconscious and unaware. Fourth, unlike most programs, a physician and a nurse attend the patient as the anesthetic wears off. Fifth, short term symptomatic treatment is prescribed to alleviate any mild withdrawal symptoms which may occur in the following couple of days. We are talking about a detoxification system with some amazing results.
It comes down to what can we afford to do and what should we do. Let us go through some of these numbers again. A study done in Toronto says “Deaths from heroin overdose have risen in certain cities, they are also related to HIV infection in some cases. The social cost exceeds millions of dollars, more going to drug enforcement”—and this is an important point—“than to drug treatment”. That is an important thing to consider. It is estimated that some $40,000 per year is spent for every untreated user.
We are going back to some of these new and exciting detoxification programs that have recently appeared. The question is what is the cost and can we afford it? Considering the number of deaths, we cannot afford to sit back and do nothing. I am not sure we can sit back and rely on the old methods of treating addiction. We have to examine anything that comes along which might deal with this in an effective way.
The U.S. drugs are criticized in some of these programs but this is not unusual. We can look at some of the other countries involved. Australia has some major concerns as well. I guess we could take some satisfaction with some of the stats coming out of The Netherlands. Listening to some of the other experts, we wonder whether or not they are accurate and whether or not they are effective. It depends on who the listener is, who the recipient is and whether or not they are interpreting some of those statistics in the same way.
It is a big problem and one we want to see some progress on. The latest procedure which I talked about has to be examined in the context of what has been used in the past. Remember that when heroin first appeared on the scene it was supposed to be the drug that was going to relieve morphine addiction. Look at what is happening with methadone which is an addiction of its own. It is a substitute for another addiction.
I think the jury is still out. But I think the consensus of this House is that this motion has to be examined very carefully by the Minister of Health. We have to encourage more thought provoking motions like this one and consider all options in the treatment of a very serious situation.