Commentary – Broadening our understanding of Canada's epidemics of pharmaceutical and contaminated street drug opioid-related overdoses

摘要

It is my privilege to introduce this second special issue of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada: Research, Policy and Practice focussed on Canada’s current opioid crisis. As Nova Scotia’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, I deal with a broad range of public health issues. The opioid crisis is one of the most challenging, given its magnitude, reach and complex nature. The death toll is sobering: in 2017 alone, almost 4000 persons lost their lives to apparent opioid-related overdoses in Canada, and this figure may rise as more data become available.SUP id="fn1-0-rf" Footnote 1 /SUP Every part of the country and all sectors of Canadian society are affected. The majority of these deaths are occurring in men (78%) and among individuals aged 30 to 39 years (28%).SUP id="fn1-2-rf" Footnote 1 /SUP The evidence suggests that apparent opioid-related overdoses may now be the leading cause of death among men aged 30 to 39.SUP id="fn2-0-rf" Footnote 2 /SUP One of the reasons this opioid crisis is so complex is that it is actually made up of two linked epidemics: an epidemic of harms, including overdoses, from pharmaceutical opioids, and an epidemic of overdoses from contaminated street drugs.