The number of people who died from illicit drug toxicity in October 2020 (162) represents a 116% increase over the number of deaths in October 2019 (75). The BC Coroners Service has detected a sustained increase of illicit drug toxicity deaths since March 2020.
The province has now recorded eight consecutive months with over 100 illicit drug toxicity deaths.
OR 800 plus deaths
“The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a devastating effect on the overdose crisis in B.C.,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer.
“Exacerbating this is the highly toxic drug supply that exists in our communities right now.
Question???? How are the two problems related?
One seems to have more death and less attention
One seems to have less deaths and gets all the attention
Michele Spillett says
Governments COULD figure out work programs and healthy rehabilitation programs for drug addicts, but would need to have a communistic approach to getting these people into facilities and they would lose their rights until they were clean and retrained with skills that would benefit the community, it would be a huge undertaking, some people believe that the OD cases are because they received the upped covid money which gave them more opportunity to purchase more drugs? It has been an ongoing dilemma for decades, mental health has definitely been an issue but what are the answers, we complain but what kind of solutions do people propose? It would be interesting to hear many opinions on this subject because we need solutions, and soon!
Bonnie Thompson says
I agree with Shawn and Joyce but there is something we can’t control and that’s what people put in their bodies. What we need is more mental health help and rehab centres along with housing. Nobody starts using drugs because they want to be a homeless addict, they use to take the pain away. I have never in my 71 years seen a government make mental health a priority.
Shawn Hathaway says
I would be curious about a few other factors.
Such as:
*Did they die of strictly an overdose?
*Did they have an over dose that led to other complications and or did they have other health issues in relation to the OD?
*Did they OD and then Test positive for Covid 19? How would that be tabulated, as both an OD and Covid death or one or the other?
I would also guess that drug supplies are also being stretched as i’m sure there is a limit due to capacity, supply, and lockdowns. This meaning there are only so many places and people making drugs, so that is your capacity limit. Now because of reduced traffic on roads, flights and various other methods of travel your supply is affected more easily. So getting it from in province, out of province, or internationally has i’m sure had its own effect on drug supplies. So if there is any type of shortage you would have to make any supply or smaller shipments last longer. That means filler agents for the most part, that can be just about anything a dealer has on hand. This does also more then likely depend on the dealer as reputation of ones product goes a long way i’m sure, just like the rep of any name brand product. So there is question of quantity over quality for illicit drug supplies.
Joyce Bunge says
Of course we know that the two are not comparable as to which death total is more supported. A family loss is a family loss, and we are all family.
Every time I read a headline extolling the seizure of a quantity of ‘illegal’ drugs I am gripped with the dreaded realization of what this ‘seizure’ means to the people who depend upon the usage of these drugs, who are self medicating to cope with their individual needs. We know that COVID-19 has affected the transportation of drugs to where they are to be dispersed, leading to a smaller amount of the drugs that are available to be not enough for the needs. So they get ‘stretched’ to needed mass, but have, in the process, been contaminated with other junk blended in. Poisons to anyone’s system, not to be chanced by one, even had they known in advance what the particular poison was. With only one testing lab using a spectrometer for street dugs in the Lower Mainland, all the other tests are for Fentanyl presence only. Legalizing drugs to insure safe supply, as we did for alcohol in 1933, would stop this senseless and hurting loss to our society. To just decriminalize drugs is stopping short of this goal.
And why do we hear less about the higher number of deaths by drug toxicity than the deaths from COVID-19 ? Mostly due to the stigma heaped upon the people who use drugs by a public that can be judgemental, fearful, misinformed and sometimes embarrassed to admit of a family member being someone who uses drugs. Add to this a population that may be living rough, or in tent cities , or homeless even when in shelters, who are often marginalized , ostracized by their families, and untrusting of help from others. So their stories are seldom told, nor counted. Even in death.
Publisher: A lot of overdoses are at home, not in a tent city. Once again for privacy reasons the government just likes numbers, not locations. And the release of death data is not related to stigma. The government seems to want to tell one story – only.
Stuart Syme says
You say, “Legalizing drugs to insure safe supply, as we did for alcohol in 1933”
Unless I am mistaken, the only Canadian Federal prohibition was from 1 April 1918 to 31 March 1919. Provinces enacted prohibition as they saw fit but none ended in 1933 and one didn’t end until 1948. Even today, municipalities can be “dry”. As can counties. I recall Grand Bend, Ontario, where the county line ran down the Main Street – one side dry and one side wet. Don’t know if that is still the case.
So the question remains, was prohibition ended in Canada – when and where it was – in order to ensure a safe supply?
Unless that is true, the analogy fails.
Can you still make an argument based upon a safe supply? Of course. I am simply not aware of any country that has solved the problem of safe supply.
Has anyone?
Publisher: Summerland was DRY for many years in the period you speak.
No liquor store.
I think it was in the late sixties the Legion and Peacock’s Perch opened for the regulars…. Yup I thunk u rite.
As to a safe supply of ANY illicit drug or pharma drug. Demand, Supply, Distribution.
If we are to be, or have been enlightened over the years. …….All drugs and alcohol should be controlled BUT not withheld from people who require same.
Joyce bunge says
I fully agree that there are more fatalities and near fatalities due to illicit drug toxicity that occur inside of homes than in tent cities. It is a horrible truth that my son was safer while he was in the tent city and while living rough in the bush than he was while in a shelter.
Mary Lou Gutscher says
And the solution? Use more force. Exaggerate the lies already being told by our “officials”. Pit neighbours against neighbours by hiring some to rat on others – even paying them to do it.
What does this remind you of?
What’s next on the agenda?
If you have a friend or acquaintance who lived through tyranny in their home countries, just ask them. They came here for freedom and instead are reliving the horrors of communism all over again here in Canada.
Our elected and appointed officials are trampling all over the Constitution and Charter of Rights and Freedoms in an ambitious drive to exercise their own agendas of ultimate control over the populace no matter what it takes.
Resist! For your own sake and that of your children and grandchildren and their generations to come.