Homeland Security looks to Vancouver man for help addressing opioid crisis
Posted June 15, 2016 6:33 am.
Last Updated June 15, 2016 6:42 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOVUER (NEWS 1130) – It’s not every day you get an email from Homeland Security, but that’s what Doctor Scott McDonald from Vancouver found in his inbox after working on a local heroin alternative project.
The Salome Project is the first of its kind in the world that gives people with Severe Opioid Use Disorder the option to inject a commonly prescribed pain-killer, or hydromorphone.
“Yes, they’re getting an opioid medication. But the advantage of them coming to us – it removes them from the chaos of the street, it gets them under the care of medical professionals that they see regularly,” explains McDonald.
He says he’s encouraged the US wants to hear from him and wants to address the opioid crisis in North America.
In Vancouver, he says there are at least 500 people who could benefit from this kind of treatment.
