B.C. illicit drug overdose deaths hit record high of 914 in 2016
The new figure is almost 80 per cent higher than the 510 overdose deaths in 2015.
VICTORIA
— More than 900 people died in British Columbia last year from illicit
drug overdoses, but the provincial health minister says the toll could
have been far higher and he warned the federal government Wednesday the
epidemic is spreading across Canada.
The
arrival of the powerful opioid fentanyl pushed the provincial death toll
to a new peak of 914 overdose deaths in 2016. The BC Coroners Service
reported the figure is almost 80 per cent higher than the 510 deaths due
to illicit drugs in 2015.
Chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said December was the worst month at 142 deaths, the highest monthly death total ever.
“The
introduction of fentanyl to our province is a game-changer,” Lapointe
told a news conference. “We’ve now got this contaminant in the illicit
drug system that is not manageable.”
Health
Minister Terry Lake said B.C.’s death toll would have been much higher
if it had not been for overdose prevention measures undertaken by the
province and the often heroic efforts by first-responders and others who
rushed to provide aid to victims.
“The evidence suggests many, many more lives would have been lost had we not done what we have done,” he said.
Lake
said he has records of 96 overdose reversals at community overdose
prevention sites where addicts can use drugs under supervision of health
officials. There were no overdose deaths at the Insite safe-injection
site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, he said.
“We’ve seen the mobile medical unit, over 600 overdoses treated,” he said.
The
B.C. government declared a public health emergency last spring in an
attempt to reduce the rising numbers of drug overdose deaths.
The B.C. Centre For Disease Control also launched a take-home naloxone program for residents to reverse the effects of opioids.
The
government also announced late last year that overdose prevention sites
would be established in communities across the province where people
could take illicit drugs while being monitored by trained professionals
equipped with naloxone.
Lake said the
federal government should declare a nationwide public health emergency,
saying the problem is spreading across the country.
“It
would focus, from a national perspective, action on this epidemic,” he
said. “We haven’t had any additional funding from Ottawa to help us with
this. Declaring a national public health emergency would focus all
Canadians on an issue that is wracking B.C. at the moment.”
Lapointe
couldn’t forecast an end, saying it will require long-term vigilance
and programs on the part of governments, health providers,
first-responders, families and drug users themselves.
She
said she recognizes that those who are dependent on illicit drugs
aren’t going to be able to abstain, but she urged them to take the drugs
in front of someone who has medical expertise or at least with a sober
friend.
An average of nine people died every two days from overdoses last month, she said.
“We know that this represents suffering and devastation in communities across our province.”
The coroner’s service said fatalities aren’t just happening among those who use opioid drugs, such as heroin.
“Cocaine and methamphetamines are also being found in a higher percentages of fentanyl-detected deaths in 2016,” Lapointe said.
People
aged 30 to 49 accounted for the largest percentage of overdose deaths
last year, and males accounted for more than 80 per cent of the overall
toll.
Dr. Perry Kendall, the province’s chief medical health officer, said the number of deaths is difficult to confront.
“This
was unexpected and disheartening,” he said. “We still have not as yet
been able to reverse the trend. This is frankly a North America-wide
problem.”
He said he will review European drug treatment programs that prescribe heroinlike medicines to addicts.
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