Drugs

Another 198 British Columbians died from toxic drugs in July, according to data released Tuesday by the B.C. Coroners Service, bringing the death toll in the first seven months of the year to 1,455.

The coroners service said the 1,455 deaths from January to July are the most ever reported in the first seven months of the year since a public health emergency over drug poisoning deaths in the province was declared in 2016.

“I am saddened to once again report that British Columbia’s toxic drug crisis shows no signs of abating,” said Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe in a statement.

On June 29, 2022, it was announced that Purdue Pharma had settled a lawsuit, launched by British Columbia over the opioid crisis. The company agreed to a settlement with B.C. and all other provincial and territorial governments in exchange for $150 million in cash and access to “information and documents relevant to the lawsuit.”

Research by the federal government’s Privy Council Office (PCO) finds that the B.C. residents it surveyed are largely negative about the decriminalization of small amounts of certain illegal hard drugs for personal use in their province.

A PCO report, “Continuous Qualitative Data Collection of Canadians’ Views – February 2023,” asked members of the South Asian diaspora living in Metro Vancouver and Interior British Columbia their views on the opioid crisis and the prevalence of opioid addiction in their communities, as first reported by Blacklock’s reporter on Aug. 23.

Canada’s supervised consumption sites aren’t safe for surrounding communities. While they shouldn’t be abolished, significant reforms are urgently needed.

First piloted in Vancouver in 2003, these sites are designed to reduce drug-associated harms by giving visitors clean paraphernalia, such as sterilized needles, along with a safe space to consume their substances. Trained staff are able to test drugs for contaminants, reverse accidental overdoses and provide users with referrals to social services, such as housing assistance and addiction treatment.

They began appearing on the ground around the South Riverdale Community Health Centre with increasing regularity after a new safe injection site opened there in late 2017. South Riverdale is an independent centre built in 1998 in Leslieville, just east of downtown Toronto, home to about 30,000 people. It also happens to be across the street from the house where I have lived with my wife and son for 14 years.

Drug crises invite a temptation to identify not drugs but their prohibition as the “real” problem. This is particularly true today, during a crisis driven by an extra-potent substance (namely fentanyl) leaking into—indeed, poisoning—the illicit drug supply. But that temptation is wrong.

I was drawn to the field of addiction by great mentors. Dr. Bruce Alexander shared his encyclopedic knowledge and was my first co-author. His rat park studies illustrated links between harmful addictions and isolation. My clinical mentor, Dr. Alan Marlatt, recruited me to the exciting first wave of research on harm reduction. Since then, I’ve been blessed by three decades of amazing clients, patients, trainees and collaborators. Together we’ve contributed to an inspiring body of evidence demonstrating ways to dramatically improve the wellbeing of people who experience addictions and homelessness. To date, that evidence has not been well communicated to Canadians. And there are more than a few people working to keep it that way.

The man who opened the first store in Canada openly selling tested heroin, cocaine, meth, and MDMA has died of an overdose.

Jerry Martin died in Vancouver on Friday, a few days after he was hospitalized due to a suspected fentanyl overdose, according to his partner Krista Thomas. He was 51 years old.

h/t XC

A Yaletown resident is suing city hall, the regional health authority and a local non-profit, alleging the “ham-fisted operation and oversight of the small, poorly suited” overdose prevention site on Seymour Street has turned the area into “a centre point for crime and public disorder.”

Second hand fentanyl sucks.
Ban open drug use.@KenSimCity @PeterMeiszner @VancouverPD @VCHhealthcare @DeputyChow @Dave_Eby @PierrePoilievre @VancouverSun @nationalpost @KevinFalcon @JM_Whiteside @Carolyn_Bennett
Close down the injection site Downtown/Yaletown. pic.twitter.com/TMvbErlm0K

— Vancouver Seedy (@SeedyVancouver) June 23, 2023