Harm-reduction activists in New Brunswick say the province's health officials are taking too long to address the opioid problem in Moncton and Saint John, and have launched a grassroots initiative in the face of what they describe as government inaction. The province's acting chief medical officer of health, Dr. Jennifer Russell, formed an advisory group on the matter more than six months ago. Russell says the task force is conducting research, while recommendations have been submitted to the province. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland are distributing free opioid-antidote kits - kits that cost about $35 at pharmacies in New Brunswick. National data indicate New Brunswick recorded the most hospitalizations per capita for opioid poisoning in Atlantic Canada for 2016-17, with Moncton and Saint John both having higher rates of opioid poisoning per 100,000 people than Vancouver. In the absence of an official plan, AIDS Moncton, a non-profit harm-reduction agency, held an opioid training session for front-line workers that included information on various drugs but also on how to deal with a person who has overdosed. The agency is also distributing 500 opioid-antidote kids donated by the Moncton-based medical-marijuana company Organigram. AIDS Moncton will turn the kit distribution into a pilot program that will generate data.
NBHC Population Health