▶ Health Minister Jane Philpott says she's open to making a formal declaration that the opioid crisis is a national public health emergency. Philpott is co-chairing a two-day summit in Ottawa on drug addiction. OTTAWA—Canada should declare a national public health emergency over its deadly opioid crisis, health care experts urged Friday, as the perils of addiction, overdose and death came under the microscope in Ottawa. Donna May, whose daughter Jac was 35 when she died of a drug overdose, said she supports calls to declare an emergency. Canada should declare a public health emergency ( The Associated Press )Declaring an emergency “takes out of the political realm the singular job of protecting public health and gives it to the people who are tasked with and empowered to do that,” Juurlink said.

Source: thestar November 18, 2016 18:17 UTC