Chatham-Kent Public Health Unit is hoping the municipality will create a new bylaw to make the patch for patch program for fentanyl users mandatory. Under the program prescriptions are only refilled if all patches are accounted for and untampered with. Addictions and mental health therapist Janice Miller says many of the pharmacists have already adopted the program but the bylaw is needed. "In order to keep the patches from getting out on the street and into the hands of individuals who have not been prescribed it, 100% participation is needed both with the physicians as well as the pharmacists and the pharmacies." There is evidence from other municipalities that the program helps to reduce the opportunity for misuse and death from the highly addictive drug.
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