Health committee  Pharmacists often are the eyes and ears of physicians on the front lines. We see patients, especially addiction patients or patients who are receiving pain medications, many times throughout the year. In New Brunswick, the average number of visits by a New Brunswicker to a pharma

Health committee  I think the vast majority of the fentanyl that is causing this problem is not coming from traditional fentanyl patches that you would see for treating patients such as cancer patients. The majority of this is coming from outside of Canada in tablet form. It's slipping through, an

Health committee  There was an increase in the opioid prescriptions. I'm not 100% sure if it's fentanyl, morphine, or hydromorphone. Personally, in my practice, I have not seen an increase of fentanyl being dispensed, but I can say from talking to law enforcement that we're seeing an increase in s

Health committee  Sorry, could you provide some more context for me on that please?

Health committee  I can certainly say that in my own practice I've never used the phrase “strong drug” to a patient. I would say this is going to provide significant pain relief or it's a medication that we have to be careful with. When we counsel our patients day in, day out, we want to make sure

Health committee  As we said earlier, I don't think there's a magic bullet that's going to solve all the problems, but I do think we're going to have to use multiple different ways to find solutions. I think regulating pill presses is one solution. I think obviously there is some work to be done w

Health committee  I think it's a good strategy. In my practice we saw a lot of patients seeking Tylenol 1s, and it got to the point where we required a patient assessment by the pharmacist to see if it was an appropriate therapy, for example, for a migraine or abscessed tooth infection. Then the p

Health committee  They can?

Health committee  Yes, and that's a great solution. I'm hopeful that more provinces can work together to move toward that solution.

Health committee  Good morning, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. My name is Alistair Bursey. I am a pharmacist in Fredericton, New Brunswick. I'm here to speak with you about the growing problem of opioid addiction in our communities from the perspective of a practitio