Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adam Donnelly

B.C. OPIOID CRISIS

Overdose crisis in B.C. continues more than five years after it was declared a public health emergency

Jun 30, 2021 | 4:32 PM

KAMLOOPS — Last month, 160 people in British Columbia died as a result of a toxic supply of illicit drugs. That brought the total number of deaths due to illicit drug overdose in B.C. to 851 for the year – more than five deaths per day through the first five months of 2021.

“I’d be remiss if I said I wasn’t disappointed in the Premier’s remarks [on Tuesday], where he indicated that this is coming to the end of Canada’s longest public health emergency when we’ve been in a Public Health Emergency around overdose since 2016,” Cheyenne Johnson, Executive Director of the BC Centre on Substance Use told CFJC Today.

Back in April 2016, Dr. Perry Kendall declared a public health emergency as deaths caused by illicit drug overdoses rose sharply in the months previous. Five years later, and British Columbia is on pace for its deadliest year ever for overdose deaths.

“In our pandemic, we’ve seen around 1,750 people die from COVID. During that same period, we saw 2,580 people die, so we’ve seen more people die from overdose, which is completely preventable than we’ve seen die from COVID in B.C.,” Johnson said.

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According to Medical Health Officer Dr. Karin Goodison, a big part of that is related to what’s in the substances folks are using.

“I’ve talked to a number of experts in this, and many of them are attributing the significant number of deaths to increasing concentrations of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs we’re seeing,” Dr.Goodison suggested. “We’re also seeing additives in the drug supply that we don’t expect to see there that increase the risk of overdose. So things like benzodiazepines, which are a sedative and can increase the risk you’re going to die, have gone from 15 per cent to 60 per cent of the drugs that we’re seeing.”

“Things are very inconsistent,” Kile McKenna, Operational Technician and Factotum with ASK Wellness explained. “[That] can definitely cause some issues in terms of people knowing how much to use, what’s normal based on previous batches of drugs that they’ve got.”

At ASK Wellness, McKenna tests drugs using an FTIR Spectrometer, which can detect different substances within a drug sample. He says the COVID-19 pandemic has led to less fentanyl entering the province from China. Instead, it’s manufactured in illegal labs in Canada, where quality isn’t a priority.

“You have a lot more things like solvents carrying over – by-products that you aren’t intending to synthesize that end up in along with the drugs,” McKenna said. “You’d normally do a little bit of a clean-up process. You lose a little bit of yield and increase the purity. It’s something that’s not done nearly as well in clandestine laboratories.”

According to experts, there are several steps the province could take to help reduce the deaths that are occurring. That includes reducing the barriers folks seeking support often encounter, as well as providing a safe supply of drugs. However, that would take a significant commitment from both the province and the federal government.

“The province has invested over $3.75 billion in COVID and its response, and only about $45 million for overdose in this budget for the next three years,” Johnson said. “Really, the size of the response needs to be proportional to the scope of the issue.”