First do no harm: Responding to Canada’s prescription drug crisis.

• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse 2013
• Subjects: Programme planning (strategy); Prescription drug (medicine / medication); Policy on substance use; Canada; First Nations
• Online Access: https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/19622/; https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/19622/1/Canada-Strategy-Prescription-Drug-Misuse-Report_Full_report.pdf; https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/19622/2/Canada-Strategy-Prescription-Drug-Misuse-Summary-en.pdf

Certain prescription drugs, like opioids, stimulants, sedatives and tranquilizers1 are associated with serious harms such as addiction, overdose and death. These drugs can have a devastating impact on people’s lives and their families, as well as place a significant burden on our healthcare, social services and public safety systems. The recommendations were developed around five streams of action: Prevention, Education, Treatment, Monitoring and Surveillance, and Enforcement. In addition to the five streams, three other areas cut across all streams and are important to this work: legislation and regulations, research, and evaluation and performance measurement. The strategy demonstrates the linkages among the recommendations and across sectors.11 The recommendations aim to: • Prevent prescription drug-related harms to individuals, families and communities; • Educate and empower the public and promote healthy and safe communities; • Promote appropriate prescribing and dispensing practices among healthcare practitioners; • Increase timely, equitable access to a range of effective treatment options throughout the continuum of pain and addictions treatment; • Identify effective, evidence-informed practices and policies and build upon them; • Develop a standardized pan-Canadian surveillance system to improve our understanding of the nature and extent of the harms associated with prescription drugs in Canada; • Establish prescription monitoring programs in each province and territory to share information about prescribing and dispensing practices across disciplines and jurisdictions on a timely basis and take timely action; • Ensure that law enforcement has adequate tools, training and resources to address the diversion of prescription drugs; • Engage industry, governments, regulatory bodies and others with a stake in the issue to join forces, commit to specific recommendations, leverage existing resources and strengthen system capacity to address the issue; • Develop or clarify legislation and regulations to reduce barriers to effective treatment and prevent harms; • Conduct research to address knowledge gaps and promote strategies to deal with this important issue; • Engage industry in concrete, responsible actions that promote patient safety, improved patient outcomes and risk mitigation; and • Provide a contextual lens to First Nations, geographically remote, isolated and rural populations.