TASK FORCE TO TACKLE C.B.'S DRUG PROBLEM

SYDNEY - A task force will investigate ways to stop rampant
prescription drug abuse that is linked to rising crime in Cape Breton
and three sudden deaths last month.

John Malcom, chief executive officer of the Cape Breton district
health authority, told this newspaper Wednesday that a brainstorming
session of key players occurred Tuesday night, setting the wheels in
motion for recommendations they hope will benefit the entire province.

Among the participants were doctors, pharmacists, police officers,
addictions staff, educators and bureaucrats. More groups - including
officials from the Community Services and Justice departments and
recovering drug addicts or their families - are being invited to join
the community partnership.

"We acknowledge - and we're not alone in Canada - to have seen an
increase in the use of drugs," Mr. Malcom said. "What is different
here is, where in the past maybe illicit drugs (like cocaine or
marijuana) were being used, there's now higher use of prescription
drugs.

"We acknowledge there's a growing problem. We think the best way to
solve this is with a community plan, a community action, a community
partnership to come up with some strategies."

Cape Breton Regional Police blame the highly addictive opium-based
narcotic OxyContin and other prescription drugs for 12 sudden deaths
in the past year and escalating violent and petty crime committed by
addicts.

Three of those deaths - two brothers in Glace Bay and a New Waterford
man - occurred within five days in February and involved overdoses.

OxyContin, known as hillbilly heroin, sells for $20 to $80 per pill on
the street and produces a high that resembles that from cocaine or
heroin. Addicts get high by snorting crushed pills or mixing them with
water and injecting the mixture.

The problem facing health practitioners, Mr. Malcom said, is that the
pill is also considered one of the best to treat patients who
legitimately suffer moderate or severe pain. When taken as directed,
OxyContin gives no high, just 12 hours of pain relief.

Cape Breton has an unusually high cancer rate and leads Canada in the
rate of occurrence of other industrial diseases. Mr. Malcom said the
local palliative care unit has as many patients as Halifax's does,
with one-third of the population.

One in 200 Cape Bretoners was prescribed OxyContin in 2002. That's
three times the rate at which the drug was prescribed in other parts
of Nova Scotia. And the prescribed doses were stronger. It's unknown
how many pills were dispensed last year but officials suspect the rate
was even higher.

OxyContin pills also arrive in Cape Breton through
crime.

"Building on that tradition we have in Cape Breton of working
together, maybe, just maybe, we have a better chance of solving this
problem," Mr. Malcom said.

Chief Edgar MacLeod of Cape Breton Regional Police welcomed the
initiative.

"I think it's an excellent first step," he said Wednesday. "Generally
I'm quite optimistic that things will start to happen as a result of
this first meeting, so I'm excited about the potential outcomes."

The chief said the whole idea is to acknowledge that prescription drug
abuse is a complex problem that police can't handle on their own.

"I'm hoping there will be a permanent structure put in place to deal
with not just prescription drug abuse but other issues like family
violence.

"Right now, we work in different departments . . . and I think it's
important we come together."

But Chief MacLeod said the province still needs to introduce a
real-time online method to give doctors immediate access to an
accounting of the quantity of narcotics sold to prevent the
inadvertent feeding of pills to patients faking symptoms.

"It's very, very important," he said of a better prescription drug
monitoring program.

The province's existing paper method of tracking prescriptions is
always at least two weeks out of date and depends upon pharmacies
sending in forms detailing narcotics sold. Some pharmacies take longer
than others to file the forms.

Health Minister Angus MacIsaac also praised the initiative after
emerging from a cabinet meeting at Halifax International Airport on
Wednesday.

"The (Cape Breton) district health authority was instrumental in
bringing the group together," he said. "They will certainly be keeping
us informed. Certainly the Department of Justice are very interested
in the outcome of these discussions as well."

Liberal health critic Dave Wilson said it's important for the province
to act.

"The issue of prescription drug abuse has been a problem for some time
and I hope that government is not simply announcing a community
partnership to stop the flow of negative media attention," Mr. Wilson
said.

"Clear recommendations, including a timetable for implementation, must
be part of the mandate requested by government and addressed."