{"id":193562,"date":"2018-12-03T23:18:37","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T04:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=193562"},"modified":"2025-01-18T17:47:04","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T22:47:04","slug":"painkiller-inside-the-opioid-crisis-telus-tells-us-like-it-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/12\/03\/painkiller-inside-the-opioid-crisis-telus-tells-us-like-it-is\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis’: TELUS Tells Us Like It Is"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Telus Health Originals\u2019 initiative along this area debuts with this documentary, put together by ace director Mathew Embry and premiered recently in Toronto at the AGO Jackman Hall. The film is now available for public viewing in You Tube and the Telus Optik TV Healthy Living Network on Channel 346 in Western Canada; also on Telus.com website for all of Canada. A French subtitled version will also be made available. (Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How much do we really know about drug abuse? Do we even realize that abuse or overdose can unsuspectingly start from the simple painkillers that we get prescriptions for from our doctors?<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are dying of drug overdose in unprecedented number and most of these deaths are caused by what we call opioid drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is the message that the heart-wrenching documentary, Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis<\/em> opens with, in an attempt to raise awareness to the painful reality that Canadians are facing about opioids, \u00a0and that unfortunately, the hapless victims are even suffering from the stigma of an addiction that they may never have wanted in the first place. The message in this film-documentary is even put across more powerfully with true stories of Canadian families whose members survived the crisis, and from some whose family members did not make it.<\/p>\n

Telus Health Originals\u2019 initiative along this area debuts with this documentary, put together by ace director Mathew Embry and premiered recently in Toronto at the AGO Jackman Hall. The film is now available for public viewing in YouTube and the Telus Optik TV Healthy Living Network on Channel 346 in Western Canada; also on Telus.com website for all of Canada. A French subtitled version will also be made available.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are absolutely dealing with a crisis. The biggest thing is to acknowledge the crisis and put resources in evidenced-based ways into the things that are needed (to be done),\u201d declares Dr. Evan Wood who is also Director of the BC Centre on Substance Abuse.<\/p>\n

Opioids and the Substance Fentanyl<\/strong><\/p>\n

Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis<\/em> warns of the substance called Fentanyl that sadly can be found even in prescription drugs that medical practitioners give their patients to manage pains.<\/p>\n

Dr. Patricia Daly, Chief Medical Officer of Vancouver Coastal Health declares, \u201cThese are classic drugs that have heroine, morphine (that) they put in some legal and illegal drugs. Most of the deaths occurring now are because of the contaminants of the illegal drug supply with drug called Fentanyl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fentanyl substance is 50-100 times stronger than morphine. Dr. Daly reveals that \u201cBecause it is much more powerful and easier to import, much smaller quantity can go a long way in the illegal market.<\/p>\n

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\u201d One thousand grams of Fentanyl is equivalent to 50 million lethal doses according to the documentary. Tiny quantities of Fentanyl can be lethal, the documentary says.<\/p>\n

Author and Addiction Expert, Dr.<\/p>\n

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Gabor Mate adds, \u201cBecause of the cheapness and availability of those killer drugs, a lot of people are dying. While Dr. Wood noted that \u201cOne to five people prescribed with an opioid will become a long-term user in 10 days.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are opioids? Opioids are drugs that give morphine-like effects. They work on the nervous system, and primarily used for pain management. Scary enough, continued use of opioids can result in physical dependence and even withdrawal symptoms.<\/p>\n

Dr. Wood laments that the opioid crisis is \u201cThe worst public health emergency we\u2019ve ever had.\u201d In 2016, there were 2,816 opioid-related deaths reported in Canada. This rose to nearly 4,000 cases in 2017, or a whopping 40% increase in just one year.<\/p>\n

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A figure that can really be alarming.<\/p>\n

Where Do We Go From Here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople need to wake up,\u201d warned Dr. Ron Abrahams, Medical Director of Perinatal Addiction, BC Women\u2019s Hospital and Health Centre. While Chief Constable Bob Rich of Abbotsford Police Department in British Columbia shares, \u201cEvery family should talk to their kids (about this).\u201d One experiment with this drug can lead to death, and relapses pose even higher risks of deaths.<\/p>\n

And in the midst of this sad reality happening, the cry of some sectors like the Moms Stop the Harm movement is to stop the stigma on addiction and for the society to start looking at this problem as a health issue. That society will believe that drug addiction of this nature is not a criminal offense and the victims, thus, are not to be frowned upon as criminals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were to run the show right now, like Portugal, I would decriminalize every drug,\u201d staunchly declared Dr. Ron Abrahams. Dr. Patricia Daly is in agreement. Dr. Abrahams also hopes that these patients \u201cshould be able to comfortably walk into their doctors\u2019 offices, speak about the trauma and not be judged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Author-doctor Dr. Gabor Mate couldn\u2019t have put it more perfectly when he said, \u201cThere is HOPE for something happening in the future. But there is something stronger than hope \u2013 there is POSSIBILITY. Possibility exists in the present moment. We wake up in the present moment. Let us look at what\u2019s possible right now.<\/p>\n

Aptly, Painkiller: Inside the Opioid Crisis <\/em>leaves everyone in the audience during the Toronto screening, \u00a0with three (3) simple admonitions \u2013 Start a Conversation. Be Compassionate. Let\u2019s End the Stigma of Addiction.<\/p>\n

TELUS pushes the envelope further by offering to donate $5 for every view of the documentary, or up to $50,000 additional funding to TELUS Health for Good which runs the Telus Mobile Health Clinics. These mobile clinics have been working to provide dignified and quality healthcare to Canadians since it was first set up in Montreal four (4) years ago.<\/p>\n

To request for public screening of the beautiful documentary, simply contact consumerhealth@telus.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How much do we really know about drug abuse? Do we even realize that abuse or overdose can unsuspectingly start …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":193565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","mauthors-bolet-s-arevalo","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285512,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193562\/revisions\/285512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}