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Legalize heroin for 'less overdose deaths,’ forensic psychologist tells Vancouver conference

A forensic psychologist working with the Canadian prison system is calling for "radically different" approaches to B.C.'s overdose crisis, including expanded access to prescription heroin.

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A forensic psychologist working with the Canadian prison system is calling for “radically different” approaches to B.C.’s overdose crisis, including expanded access to prescription heroin.

Dr. Bruce Monkhouse, an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta and the University of Victoria, said that with the illicit-drug supply overwhelmingly tainted by fentanyl and carfentanil, and with both inmates and clients at his private practice at heightened risk of overdose death, the federal government needs to consider legalizing heroin — just as it currently plans to do with cannabis.

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“My argument is we’ve got to get it out of the criminal justice system and we’ve got to move the discussion and treat it like Portugal, Switzerland … as a public health and education issue,” Monkhouse said after speaking Tuesday a Downtown Vancouver conference presented by Calian Health.

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“By legalizing it, by controlling it, by having it prescribed, we can do quality control, and we’re going to have less overdose deaths.”

Monkhouse said his opinion is guided by 25 years of working with federal and provincial offenders at correctional facilities, as well as at his private practice. From working daily with people with substance-use disorder, he has concluded that now is the time for “radically different” approaches to addiction amid B.C.’s ongoing overdose-related public-health emergency.

In 2016, 931 people died of an illicit drug overdose in B.C., up from 514 in 2015, according to B.C. Coroners Service. In the first three months of 2017 alone, there were 347 deaths.

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The B.C. Coroners Service did not have data available on overdose deaths within the correctional system, which would take “a few days” to collect, a spokeswoman said.

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According to a 2015-16 annual report, the Office of the Correctional Investigator reviewed 85 investigation reports that involved 105 incidents of overdoses occurring in Corrections Service Canada facilities between 2012-13 and 2014-15.

“Almost two-thirds of male offenders report using drugs or alcohol on the day of their current federal offence,” the report also says.

It cost taxpayers about $118,000 per year to house a federal inmate in 2011-12, according to a 2014 report by the federal public safety ministry. Monkhouse said about three-quarters of inmates suffer substance-use disorder, and he added Canadians would save millions of dollars if people with addictions were moved from the prison system into appropriate streams of health care instead.

Monkhouse said the key to swaying public opinion on prescription heroin “so that it becomes a medicine” will be comprehensive education campaigns that focus on demonstrating that addiction is a “chronic medical and mental-health” issue.

“We keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results — and we’re not getting them,” he said. “We’re operationalizing Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity.”

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Health Canada is looking at loosening regulations so officials could apply for imports of bulk quantities of prescription-grade heroin, which could also be accessed for other public-health emergencies. Health authorities would be able to import a year’s supply of prescription-grade heroin or other drugs.

“Our government is determined to work with our partners to help reduce the harm to citizens and communities that is associated with problematic substance use,” federal Health Minister Jane Philpott said in a statement.

With a file from The Canadian Press

neagland@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/nickeagland

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