A response to the Alberta government’s claim that patients of the Injectable Opioid Agonist Treatment (“iOAT”) are able to access alternative treatments through Alberta Health Services that will be effective as iOAT, and therefore there will be no disruption to the care and treatment received by the Plaintiffs and other iOAT patients.
“Injectable opioid agonist treatment is the sole treatment that has proven effective for patients enrolled in iOAT. When enrolling in this treatment program patients were not advised that the government or AHS intended to end the program. The arbitrary and cruel decision to close these clinics and cut patients off of this life-saving treatment places patients in grave danger of relapse and overdose death. This risk can not be overstated, and a number of previous studies have shown that in instances where patients are forced to transition from iOAT, the outcome is a return to illegal drug use at pre-treatment levels. While the government continues to fund oral medications for opioid use disorder, these medications are not an effective for long term treatment of patients with treatment refractory opioid use disorder. Many jurisdictions in Canada are working to scale up access to iOAT treatment as part of the response to the historically unprecedented overdose epidemic. Alberta has chosen to scale back options for patients just as we’ve recorded the worst ever quarter on record for overdose deaths.”