With new stats out this month that shows the opioid drug crisis is continuing in B.C., UBC students are going to weigh into the public debate over the issue.
Students from UBC campuses in Kelowna as well as Vancouver, Victoria and Prince George will be travelling to Victoria to lobby the provincial government over the opioid drug crisis.
The lobby efforts are being organized by the UBC Medical Students Political Action Committee.
On Feb. 27, medical students from UBC will be travelling to the legislative assembly of B.C. to discuss the opioid crisis. This event marks the fourth annual provincial lobby day for the University of British Columbia’s Medical Undergraduate Society (MUS). The MUS represents over 1,100 medical undergraduate students studying in British Columbia.
The medical students will call on the B.C. government to address these complex issues through a broader conversation around comprehensive chronic pain management, evaluating supervised injectable heroin, and improved longitudinal management of substance use disorders.
In addition, medical students would like the social determinants of health that intersect with mental illness and substance use, particularly poverty, to be a priority issue in the upcoming provincial election.
Organizers of the lobby effort say they recognize the need to address systemic issues in order to produce a long-term, sustainable reduction in harms and deaths associated with substance use.
Other measure the students say are important are improved integrated chronic pain and addictions care, including accessibility of addictions care, and addressing the social determinants of health, such as poverty and inadequate housing, will help protect the health of British Columbians affected by addictions and/or chronic pain.
