Province forms task force to deal with growing drug overdose problem

Premier Christy Clark has announced that a new task force will be formed to deal with the overwhelming number of illicit drug overdoses in the province.

The joint task force will be headed by provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall and the director of police services, Clayton Pecknold. The rest of the team is still being determined, but according to Clark, the team will provide leadership and advice to the province on additional actions to prevent and respond to overdoses in B.C.

So far in 2016, there have been a reported 371 accidental overdose deaths, including 19 in Kelowna and 22 in Kamloops. According to the BC Coroner, there has been an increase in overdose deaths of 74.2 per cent compared to this same time last year.

By June, the number of overdose deaths in Kamloops was more than double the deaths recorded in all of 2015.

The proportion of deaths in which fentanyl was detected has increased substantially with approximately 60 per cent of all deaths involving the drug. That is up from 31 per cent in 2015. The overdoses are being considered an unprecedented and was declared as a public health emergency in April 2016.

As a result, the province plans to introduce additional supervised consumption sites in B.C., restrict access to pill presses and tableting machines, limit access to the material used to manufacture fentanyl, and introduce escalating charges for the importation and trafficking of fentanyl.

The task force will work with partners to establish a testing service to help people find out if their drugs contain adulterants, including fentanyl. It will help facilitate a social marketing campaign to increase public awareness on how to prevent, identify and respond to overdoses.

"While we are leading the country in addressing this issue, families are still losing loved ones to senseless and tragic drug overdoses. This task force will help the Province take the additional steps needed to get drugs like fentanyl off the street, get people the treatment they need and keep families healthy and safe."

Recently the province established a provincewide take-home naloxone program, a medication that can reverse the effects of an overdose of an opioid drug such as heroin, morphine, fentanyl or oxycodone. Since the program’s launch, more than 700 opioid drug overdose reversals have occurred.

According to the latest statistics from the BC Coroners Service, males are more likely to die from an illicit drug overdose. So far this year, 301 men have died and 70 women province-wide as a result of a drug overdose. Of those who have died this year, those between the age of 30 and 39 lead the way for largest age group affected. A total of 116 people have died within this age range, 86 people between the age of 20 and 29, and 81 people between the age of 40 and 49.

The majority of overdose deaths have occurred in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, followed by the B.C. Interior.