US, Canada alarmed: painkiller overdosing deadly

Canadian provincial premier Clark said British Columbia had recorded 371 fentanyl overdose deaths from January to June alone, describing the 74-percent year-on-year surge in fatalities as "frightening."

An accidental overdose of fentanyl, the opiate-based painkiller intended for terminally ill patients, was the stated cause of death in the autopsy report on Prince, the renowned funk singer who died in Minnesota on 21 April.

The US National Institute on Drug Abuse describes Fentanyl ais "a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent."

Canadian province launches campaign

Clark said her province British Columbia was launching a "task force" of its health and police officials following its declaration of an emergency in April.

"Families are still losing loved ones to senseless and tragic drug overdoses," she said.

Clark called on Canada's federal government to help "get the deadly drugs of our streets and get people the help they need," through distribution of antidote kits.

She also demanded restrictions on "access to pill presses and tableting machines, limits on materials used to manufacture fentanyl, and higher charges for the importation and trafficking of the drug.

"B.C. will also request that Canada Border Services Agency has the right tools to keep illicit opioids from reaching B.C. streets," she added.

Overwhelming crisis, say US governors

Two weeks ago in Iowa City, 45 US state governors signed a compact to fight the opioid crisis, saying it had overwhelmed health care systems, police agencies and social services in their states.

Last Friday, US President Barack Obama signed into law the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, a bill passed by both houses of Congress, accusing Republicans of failing to provide adequate funding.

The legislation includes the requirement that state hospitals and social services track and assist vulnerable drug-dependent newborn babies and their parents.

Some babies suffer withdrawal symptoms such as shaking and feeding difficulties. The news agency Reuters said more than 110 babies had died in the US since 2010 under preventable circumstances.

Roughly 78 Americans die every day from overdoses of opioids, including fentanyl and heroin, according to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) - representing a quadrupling since 1999 - and most acutely in the US Midwest.

The death toll in 2014 as a whole was 14,000. Critics say compared to the HIV/AIDS crisis, US authorities have been too slow to react.

Painkiller overperscribing blamed

Andrew Kolodny, a scientist at Brandeis University and director of a physicians' association for "responsible prescribing" said there was a growing awareness that doctors and dentists were prescribing too many painkillers.

Kolodny said the belief back in the 1990s among drug companies, professionals and authorities that opiates could compassionately end pain had "led to the epidemic that we're dealing with today."

Emergency medical chief at New Jersey's St Joseph's Regional Medical Center, Mark Rosenberg, said his team has slashed opioid painkillers for all but essential cases.

Safer alternative medications and trainable techniques for patients on how to best manage pain were available, Rosenberg said. "We need to do something."

ipj/kl (AFP, AP, Reuters)