[ad_1]
Article content continued
These statistics are often held up by the anti-lockdown crowd as proof that the focus on the pandemic is a distraction from other public health concerns and that our restrictions have had harmful unintended consequences.
Even Premier Jason Kenney linked this crisis to our pandemic response. In announcing these fatality numbers, in addition to launching the new Alberta Substance Use Surveillance System, Kenney pointed to reduced access to in-person treatment programs and the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit as driving factors in the increase in overdose deaths.
There is, indeed, a connection between the overdose crisis and the pandemic crisis, but it’s not what the premier or the anti-lockdown voices would have you believe.
For one, this isn’t an addiction crisis so much as it’s an overdose crisis. It’s a subtle but crucial distinction. Border closures and travel disruptions resulting from the pandemic have had a direct and dramatic impact on the toxicity of street drugs. Those drugs became more dangerous, and as a result, more people have died.
That’s not to say that other factors haven’t played a role, but many who are quick to point to those other factors are also ignoring the most relevant one.
If we’re trying to save lives, and we know why people are dying, then there are some obvious steps we can take. But that’s not what the sudden converts to this issue are really hoping for. For many, they just want an end to lockdown measures. Whether that actually has any impact on overdose deaths is ultimately inconsequential to them.
[ad_2]
Source link
