More than 900 Overdose Deaths in 2016
Prince George, B.C.- Last year, 914 people lost their lives because of a drug overdose, and Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe says as testing results are still to be completed, that number is likely to increase .
That is an 80% increase in overdose deaths that occurred in 2015.
December saw the highest number of deaths with 142 in that month alone, which Lapointe says amounts to nine deaths every 2 days.
“These numbers are, tragically, far too high” said Health Minister Terry Lake. He says this crisis should be a launching pad for new ways to treat drug addiction and helping people on the road to recovery. “We are expanding access to recovery supports” says Minister Lake. To that end, the Province has announced an additional 60 residential treatment beds and 50 outpatient treatment spaces. Both treatment options will be 90-day programs, followed by a year of
follow-up care in the community, including weekly group counselling and access to counsellors when issues arise.
The Province has allocated $10 million for the new services, which will start opening this spring and are in addition to the commitment the province has already made to have 500 new addiction treatment beds in place.
As of February 1st, the Province will also give 100% opioid substitution therapies to eligible British Columbians. That expanded coverage is expected to cost more than $6 million a year.
Chief Coroner Lapointe says they know those who suffer from drug dependency will not be able to abstain immediately from using drugs “Given the increasing risk of contaminated drugs and the growing number of fatalities, though, we urge them to use illicit drugs only in the presence of medical expertise or, at the very least, a sober person with access to, and training in, the use of naloxone. For those who are not drug dependent, we strongly advise you to avoid
experimentation and the casual use of illicit drugs. The risks are now unmanageable.”
Lapointe says it is too early to say if fentanyl or carfentanil were major factors in the December deaths, as test results are not expected until March. She also says the fatalities are not just among opioid drug users, that cocaine and methamphetamines are also being found in a high percentage of confirmed fentanyl detected deaths last year.
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Comments
Sucks to be them! No sympathy here. They pour big money into these druggies, and yet some elderly are just getting by, can’t get funding, medical issues, and a multitude of other organizations that could have used funds! But no, gotta give it to Junkies! Something wrong with this picture, big time!
This is what happens when you have a clueless government at the helm; “CBC News has learned the number of substance abuse treatment beds for youth, aged 19 years and under, has plunged in B.C., even as young people continue to die in record numbers from fentanyl overdoses.”
“The decline in beds seems to fly in the face of an election promise to create 500 new addiction treatment spaces in B.C. by 2017, made three-and-a-half years ago by Premier Christy Clark.”
Like I said, Christy Clark, and her government, are clueless!!!
ht tp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/treatment-beds-for-you-addicted-to-fentanyl-drop-despite-premier-s-promise-1.3780058
Thing is, the fentanyl is coming from China. It’s the Federal Government – you know, Justin Trudeau’s government, that is responsible for securing the border. It is the Federal Government who is allowing all these drugs into the country to kill our citizens. The costs for the Federal Government’s failure to keep the drugs out of the country, is now being downloaded to the province. The costs are greater when you consider how many long term care beds are being taken up by drug users who were revived but remained brain damage. Care beds now no longer available for our senior citizens.
My ER doctor friend tells too frequently me he’s revived the same people twice in the same day. What treatment program can you devise that can mitigate the stupidity of someone who overdoses, get’s revived, then does it again. Government can only do so much.
And besides, I though you were worried about child poverty. You want us to take money away from the social services to children to pay for this? Perhaps education, senior care. And where we going to get the money from when people like you object to every effort to create wealth through resource extraction.
I’m sure Horgan has some magical way of creating revenue without disturbing the ground. Too bad he won’t share it with the rest of us.
Sure, it’s the government’s fault! Why should people take responsibility for their own actions! That is the problem nowadays, if all else fails it’s the government’s fault. Man, I shake my head at some comments! Even though the government had forked out a ton of money (taxpayers at that) for these irresponsible actions, she still has my vote! If people feel strongly about the druggies, bag them up and take them home! LOL
It breaks my heart each time I read stories about overdoses. A few days ago as I had browsed through the Internet I had come across a website from a Dad in Pennsylvania whose son had overdosed.
One story he wrote in the hopes it would get into the hands of those who are on drugs is called, “The Mess You’ll Leave Behind” – “Dear active drug user”, it’s a heart wrenching story with all the details of what a family will go through when they get a call regarding a person that has died from an overdose.
I posted it to my website, in the hope that it may be helpful in relation to some of those you are helping. You can find the article here:
http://www.doorsofhope.com/fam-teens-kids/teenconnections.html#Drug_User
I have full permission from Cris Fiore to share this.
Tony Romeyn
tony@doorsofhope.com
http://www.doorsofhope.com
http://www.iammissing.ca
Thank you for your comment and the link Tony. It’s nice to know there are others who care about this Fentanyl Overdose Crisis and it’s many victims and their families. I tried to sign Cris Fiore’s petition but it seems to be USA specific, I also browsed your website and it has some very good resources on other important issues.
Thank you for your kind response.
For those who seem to have no empathy, I wonder what would happen if it was your child, your brother or sister.
In my thoughts I don’t see an addict any different then a person suffering mental health. Neither one can make a healthy decision. I know in the early stages they have clearer choices and then they get trapped.
You may not want to read my much more radical opinion, “HELP ME LIVE NOT DIE” and I know it won’t happen as it is against all civil liberties.
Check on my website here if you do want to know my thoughts:
http://www.doorsofhope.com/journey%20of%20hope/help-me-live.htm
Tony Romeyn, not only do I have a brother who is a druggie but I have 2 that are druggies. It was their CHOICE that they are in the position that they are, if they die it will also be a result of their CHOICES. I don’t care if they die, not my problem, at least the calls for money will stop. I wonder how many others commenting on this topic have family members that are druggies and I wonder what there thoughts are?
Myth #2: Addictions to drugs and alcohol are the result of a lack of willpower.
Fact: Not true. Once again, research has shown that addictions are the result of a number of factors. Genetics, the environment (for example, family or friends), and perhaps an existing mental illness such as depression (called a concurrent disorder) can all contribute to an addictive habit.
People who are addicted to substances change the way their bodies sense pleasure. When an addicted person is not using drugs or alcohol, their biological and chemical processes are not satisfied, resulting in an overwhelming craving. The urges are not only emotional, but physical. It takes a great deal of effort, therapy and medication to overcome all of the influences that led to the addiction; it is certainly not just a matter of exerting a little willpower.
ht tp://reddeer.cmha.ca/files/2013/05/MythsAboutMentalIllness.pdf
Sorry BH but sometimes people just make stupid CHOICES. That is the problem with society today, everyone has a disorder, sickness, mental illness, genetics, etc, etc..
My hart is no longer bleeding for you ….
You reap what you sow
Sure, it’s the government’s fault! Why should people take responsibility for their own actions! That is the problem nowadays, if all else fails it’s the government’s fault. Man, I shake my head at some comments! Even though the government had forked out a ton of money (taxpayers at that) for these irresponsible actions, she still has my vote! If thank people feel strongly about the druggies, bag them up and take them home! LOL
Thank you, thought I was the only one to see the black and white issue. Straightforward yet again, ” Don’t Do Drugs!!”
Some say we went to Afghanistan to kill the Taliban that was messing up the poppy trade. Now the deep state CIA types are in business with them and exports have never been so high…. Fentynal is the killer but few if any are knowingly taking fentynal. Most of the addiction crisis is because we have bumper crops of opium on the market finding new victims every day.
So what did Canada do to stop the opium when we spent the billions in country ‘fighting’ the terrorists?
“few if any are knowingly taking fentynal”
Then they must be the Pinball Wizard junkies….deaf dumb and blind… given the amount of attention that it has received over the last year or two. Every social worker, needle exchange person and everyone at the safe injection site talks endlessly about the dangers and how to avoid becoming the next victim. Outreach workers are combing the streets advising of the dangers. They are handing naloxone kits like candy.
CIA?…many people are saying that your alt-wingnut websites are running out of imagination and have started to recycle old Ollie North stories.
While unfortunate that so many have died it is not like they were not aware of the dangers. If they followed simple advice by testing strength of the drugs with a small dose first, not using alone or go to a safe injection site and having a naloxone kit available then most of these people would still be alive.
Was reported on the news that some of the users are shooting up the dope then naloxone then more dope to get a yo-yo high. Needles from the kits have found to have been used to shoot dope. So under these circumstances the life saving kits were rendered useless.
A report in the G&M on the DES said it was like an open drug market on Hastings street last Mardi Gras. Time for the VPD to flood the area on welfare day and round up the dealers…..and again next month….and the one after that.
Vancouver has added a .5% increase to the property tax bill to cover things like the massive increase in calls to fire department rescue crews who are first responders to the od’s. The days around welfare Wednesday they do not even return to the station between calls.
Is it time to look at how welfare is paid out? Limit the amount of cash each month by paying rent directly to landlord and give a weekly food basket with personal care items? For a lot of these people the whole check is gone up the arm in a few days anyway.
It is all well and good to clammer for more recovery beds it should not be at the expense of other health care priorities.
BH is -hopefully- going to let us know (this is a great opportunity!) what the NDP would do to get the addicts off the often deadly stuff and cure them! Anyone can condemn and rant but without having a viable alternative there is no meat on the bones!
How naive of some of you to assume that all who die from a fentanyl overdose are stupid scumbags. You are totally clueless and without empathy.
Just let the problem come a little closer to home and you will probably change your tune. Giving you the benefit of the doubt, as I’m sure that most of you are good people, not as selfish and hateful as you portray.
Peter North, I don’t buy it. If you actually do have 2 brothers who are users then that must be one dysfunctional family if you can so callously
state that you do not care if they die. I guess they have inconvenienced you by asking for money. Heres a hint, it’s okay to say no.
metalman.
Metalman, Oh I have said no plenty of times. Funny how some on this site say “Well if it was your family member”, well it is my family members and when I comment I get called a liar or I don’t understand, seems to me some like metalman aren’t the “caring members” of society they try to portray and also have no idea what they are talking about, unfortunately I do and no I do not care what happens to certain family members, that is a cold hard fact, some people can’t handle the truth I suppose. And yes I guess you could call my family dysfunctional, at least a couple anyway but it was their CHOICE to do drugs, nobody forced them. Metalman, maybe if you had a family member on drugs THEN you could comment on this topic with some authority, but until then…
Maybe Metaman can open a free safe zone in his house if he is so wired on this subject! Pretty strong words utilized by this guy, guess he is a prize by the sounds of it. As for empathy, well if you knew the career I led and how many druggies ruined family lives by stealing, coercing, B&Es, and the list goes on, damn straight I am cynical! Then they blow taxpayers money only for them to do it again. Paramedics saving the same person twice in one day due to overdoses! Take them home metalman and tend to them, be my guest!
BeingHuman, your comment means a lot to me, especially these words:
“Sociopaths never answer facts; they always attack the messenger.”
I am definitely going to specifically remember your words each and every time that you sanctimoniously put down, belittle, denigrate, make reference to or call names such as idiot to anybody else on this site!
THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH FOR YOUR COMMENT!!
Good one!
Leave it to the CBC to point fingers at the gov’t, instead of the drug abuser. I want to know more about the stats. How many were OD’s because of needles, smoking crack etc.
Great program on CBC yesterday on this. Interview with a mother who lost her son to overdose. He was home two days before he overdosed and she had to put him out, can’t stay here if you are using. She was so sorry but nothing she could do – you can’t have the influence on other family members just have to close the door and say come back when you are ready for help. They found him with a cell phone that had an unsent message saying something like – i will be ok, love you mom
How does one die checked in to a rehab of fentanyl overdose?
ht tp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/brandon-jansen-fentanyl-inquest-1.3937715
Read a story in the newspaper once about someone who was having a heart attack and was in rapid emergency transport to the hospital in the ambulance. Despite it’s emergency lights being on and siren blaring, the ambulance got into an accident and the patient died… does this mean we should no longer provide ambulance services?
What about people in police custody? There are rare cases where individuals have died while in police custody. So here you provide us with an extremely rare example of a person who died from an overdose while in treatment. Yes it should not have happened, and there is an investigation into how it happened, and more importantly recommendations will be brought forward on how to prevent this death from happening in the future.
Rather than focusing on the rare exception, lets face the fact that addiction treatment centers save countless lives, the relevant question that needs to be asked here is; how many of those more than 900 lives lost to Fentanyl overdoses could have been saved if the Christy Clark government had followed through with it previous election promise to provide 500 new addiction treatment beds for our youth?
It just goes to show what a complicated matter this whole addiction thing really is! 24 hour watch and emptying out all pockets? Frisking visiting friends and relatives?
Not to forget that the resources of our province are not unlimited as far as manpower and money are concerned!
I do have compassion for those in trouble, but they themselves must take responsibility for their actions. If they do not do so the consequences are well known.
Beinghuman will not explain what the BCNDP would have done and would be doing if it were in power to prevent deaths due to overdosing, cure the addicts and prevent them from making the decision to take these addictive drugs in the first place!
After all, people exercise their personal freedoms when they make choices, including bad choices. How wouLd the NDP prevent them from making wrong choices?
Not my “job” to list all of the prevention and treatment initiatives that need to be undertaken to drastically reduce the unacceptably high Fentanyl overdoses. The NDP, as any “responsible” government should, needs to meet with public health officials to formulate strategies to address this overdose crisis.
PrinceGeorge, when you state what would “I” do about this unacceptable situation, you are trying to make this about me, when it really is, and should remain, focused on our addicted youth.
As for the other comments directed at me… how sad… all that outrage directed towards me for mentioning “sociopath” in a comment, yet no outrage over the unacceptable, and preventable, deaths of more than 900 people. Wow… just wow!!!
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