Hamilton facing a 'drug crisis,' fights back with community strategy

Hamilton is facing a "drug crisis" according to Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the city's medical officer of health and the chair behind the latest drug strategy community report.

She says the new report by the Hamilton Drug Strategy Steering Committee shows substance use rates are up "across the board" with the numbers for opioid, alcohol and meth use all continuing to climb, as well as emergency room visits for overdoses.

But Richardson says meth is one of the primary concerns. There were 39 reports of emergency room visits related to meth use in 2012 and there were 504 in 2018 — a 1,110 per cent increase.

"We know meth is a fairly cheap drug to access and it's also concerning, like other drugs, it can be cut with other substances," she says. "It's really concerning we're still having that level of use."

Richardson says the number is steadily growing, and in 2019, there were more than 600 emergency visits related to stimulants, the majority of which would be linked to meth.

Opioids are still the deadliest drug, killing 124 people in Hamilton in 2018, compared to 88 in 2017. There were 70 deaths linked to opioids from January to July of 2019.

Regardless of the substance, Richardson says it's indicative of a larger problem, especially since most users deal with multiple drug issues.

"We have a substance use crisis, a drug crisis in terms of people using substances as a way of delaying with the things that have happened to them over the years," Richardson says.

Alcohol was another highlighted part of the report. Richardson points to a stat that shows about half of adults and one in three high school students don't consume alcohol safely. The report also indicates alcohol was linked to roughly 3,000 emergency room visits.

Dr. Kerry Beal, lead physician of the Shelter Health Network says the overall results of the report are unsurprising, especially in terms of youth.

"It's certainly huge, they don't seem to have the fear of [drugs], they're immortal … there are perhaps a lot more youth using than there were in the past and using more dangerous drugs."

Drug strategy focuses on harm reduction, prevention and diversion

The updated strategy focuses on cutting down stigma related to drug use as well as taking down the social issues that lead to drug use.

"They're related to … the trauma people experience, whether it's in early childhood or somewhere along the way where there has been violence or abuse," Richardson says.

The strategy is the work of a broad collaboration of more than 125 stakeholders that tries to identify gaps in service and implement "evidence-based" practices.

The framework of the plan revolves around four pillars:

• Preventing youth aged 12-24 from accessing drugs by educating through schools and youth organizations

• Harm reduction through increased naloxone access

• Reducing stigma via support groups

• Increasing access to diversion programs and healthcare providers

Beal says the efforts sound "familiar" but adds there are more community members involved.

Richardson says with the numbers continuing to rise despite previous strategies in place, "it's time for people to come together" but Beal adds communication can get complicated within the large web of partners.

"There's a move afoot to try and all get on the same page to work on the same goal than do the exact same thing in different rotations," she says.

"Having a strategy is one of the first steps toward getting everybody working together."