Windsor calls on province to review for-profit pharmacies dispensing drugs for addiction treatment

Opioids with a heroin syringe or other narcotic substances next to a bottle of prescription opioids. Oxycodone is the generic name for a range of opioid painkillers.

City council is calling on the province to review for-profit addiction treatment and dispensing models across Ontario as part of the battle against addictions issues in Windsor, specifically in the downtown core.

Council passed a motion from Ward 3 Councillor Renaldo Agostino during Monday’s meeting that will see a letter sent to the Ministry of Health requesting a review to end what he calls the ‘variety store’ style of treatment.

“The method right now, this for-profit method, is a dangerous slippery slope,” he says. “The mayor said it, doctors said it, people take their medications, they leave there, and they go and sell them to somebody else so that they can get fentanyl or crystal meth.”

Agostino would like to see improved regulations and more involvement from hospitals when it comes to distributing medication and pharmaceutical opiates to patients with addictions, so more support is available to those battling addiction.

He takes specific issue with sites advertised as pharmacies that dispense medications after the patient receives a prescription from a doctor who is not even in the area and only sees the patient through a video link.

“They’re using iPads with doctors in other cities to prescribe very dangerous potent medicines without actually seeing them face-to-face,’ he says. “It’s become a huge money maker, and when that happens without oversight, without regulation, then you’re going to see people take advantage of the system, and the people being taken advantage of are the people we see out on our streets.”

Agostino says if this is something that moves the needle even one per cent, we should do it.

“Without any kind of wraparound services for these pharmacies, it’s not just pharmacies; there’s Pozitive Pathways, for example, the same thing. People go in there, and they get what they need, and after that there’s no follow-up, there’s no wraparound. Next thing you know, there are people passed out in the middle of the street. There are people doing unhealthy, unruly things. It’s affecting the business community; it’s affecting the residents that live there,” he says.

Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens agrees that this is a real challenge.

“It’s easy for folks to say, ‘Well, these are just pharmacies; they’re just prescribing medications. We shouldn’t treat them any differently than any Shoppers Drug Mart.’ These are different, and they’re dealing with a different type of illness that is associated with behaviours that are really problematic for the businesses in the area where these pharmacies are located,” he says.

Dilkens says they’re not saying don’t deliver the service.

“We’re saying we have to have some ability to deal with the negative behaviours that are associated in and around these facilities so we’re not having a detrimental impact on the businesses downtown that are actually employing people, that have capital in play, and that pay the city property taxes,” he says.

Agostino was inspired by a similar call by London City Council, which will discuss the issue further at its meeting Tuesday, April 28. A notice of motion introduced earlier this month in London noted “these sites are dispensing hydromorphone through provincially funded mechanisms, including OHIP, under policy frameworks that do not require sufficient aftercare or ongoing oversight.”