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| Photo by: frankieleon via flickr |
Death tolls in British Columbia, one of Canada’s ten provinces, are on the rise. Health officials have noticed a significant increase in the number of overdoses occurring in the province.
The change is so significant; in fact, that the numbers have risen by a total of 88 percent. All year, deaths have being continuously rising and seem to have peaked to almost four overdoses every day.
In June, 111 people are expected to have died. This is an increase of 66 percent compared to June 2016. In 2017 thus far, an approximate total of 780 people have overdosed in British Columbia alone. At this point in 2016, only 414 people overdosed.
Studies have confirmed that the over 75 percent of these deaths occurred in individuals aged between 30 and 59 years old. Not only this, but four out of the five people who are thought to have overdosed were men.
Between January and April of this year, 488 people died of accidental overdoses. The remaining deaths have occurred between April and July.
Lisa Lapointe, Chief Coroner in B.C., said, “It’s a relief to see the lowest number of deaths for any month to date in 2017, we are still seeing a significant increase in illicit drug overdose deaths compared even with this time last year and are continuing to lose loved and valued members of our communities at this tragic rate.”
Lapointe has studied which drugs are most often found in the systems of the deceased. She found that fentanyl is responsible for 78 percent of all illicit drug deaths; totalling to 525 out of 669 deaths between January to May.
During the same time period last year, the number of fentanyl-related deaths was half of those found this year. British Columbia has seen a rise in fentanyl-related deaths for the past five years.
In light of this situation, health officials are discussing the plan to offer the online selling of a drug that will reverse the effects of an overdose. Perry Kendall, who is a health officer, points out that while publicly available naloxone kits have lowered the total number of emergency room overdoses, the number of people who are dying of overdoses has gone up.
Kendall says, “But there is more that we can and must do to build resiliency in communities to expand and enhance the treatment and recovery systems and continue B.C.’s notable history of not being afraid to pilot and implement programs that seemed new and exciting or controversial at the time but that the rest of Canada eventually ends up adopting.”
In an interview, the provincial health officer spoke about the stigma around drugs, and how this prevents people from seeking help and that it may make them nervous from buying naloxone kits altogether.
The number of doctors prescribing patients opioid substitution drugs is rising as well. Coroners and health officials hope to spread the message that in the future, users should take added precautions when using illicit drugs; for example, they should never use drugs like fentanyl alone and they should become more aware of when an overdose is occurring.
