Experts explore multitude of strategies to curb opioid poisoning crisis

It's been a deadly year for opioid poisonings in Alberta, and some experts say it's time to bring in new tool, and revisit old ones, to combat the crisis.

An Edmonton doctor helped the province through a deadly crisis in the early 1990s.

Dr. Stan Houston said a game-changing tactic was introduced to help in the fight against HIV — harm reduction.

The infectious disease and HIV doctor helped create resources like a needle exchange program, which proved effective and evolved over the years into safe injection services.

“While people can acquire HIV in several ways, unsafe injection is one of them,” he explained in a letter. “While Albertans can imagine that we encountered some political and ideological objections along the way, there is a growing realization these are necessary public health measures to protect Albertans and reduce health-care pressure.”

Rates of new HIV infections due to injection have declined substantially over the last 30 years, due in part to the programs Houston and his team helped facilitate, as well as improvements to treatment.

“When HIV first hit, Alberta perhaps surprised other provinces by being a leader in making (the necessary drugs) available to anyone who needed them with great success.”

Houston said there are parallels between that crisis and a current one: opioid poisonings.

But the path to help those Albertans looks different.