B.C. opioid rules were to reduce overdoses. But they cut cancer patients’ pain meds

Rule changes designed to reduce opioid overdose deaths in British Columbia in 2016 inadvertently harmed cancer and palliative-care patients by reducing their access to pain killers, a new study has found.
The study published this week in the Canadian Medical Association Journal describes the impact of a practice standard issued by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. that June, about two months after the province declared a public health emergency over opioid deaths.
The rule changes w