Data showing no rise in life expectancy due to opioids need to be Canadian election issue, B.C. doctor says

published on May 30, 2019 by Camille Bains in CBC News (BC)

Life expectancy rates in Canada have stopped increasing for the first time in four decades, says a Statistics Canada report that blames opioid-related overdoses for deaths in British Columbia, followed by Alberta.

Canadians concerned about young adults dying from overdoses should demand drug-policy changes by “holding politicians’ feet to the fire,” said an addictions specialist responding to the data released Thursday.

“I don’t understand, truthfully, how governments are making decisions that pertain to this issue because we’re hemorrhaging money with bad drug policy and poor health-care spending,” said Dr. Keith Ahamad of the high rates of deaths.

Statistics Canada said life expectancy did not go up from 2016 to 2017 for either men or women after an upward trend from the mid-1990s to 2012, but overall gains then started to stall…

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