Thursday, April 14, 2022 marked the six-year anniversary of B.C.’s deadly overdoses crisis which was declared a public emergency in 2016 by the previous provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall. The declaration allowed “medical health officers throughout the province to collect more robust, real-time information on overdoses in order to identify immediately where risks are arising and take proactive action to warn and protect people who use drugs”. This information is to be shared with the provincial health officer and analyzed by the BC Centre for Disease Control. The intention of this streamlined sharing of information was intended to help prevent future overdoses and deaths by allowing groups involved in battling the overdose crisis to target their outreach and increase aware about toxic drugs in circulation.
Unfortunately, since 2016, over 9,400 British Columbians have lost their lives to B.C.’s toxic drug supply leading British Columbia to apply to the federal government to decriminalize small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use in an attempt to help destigmatize their use and to encourage those who struggle with substance use to seek care. B.C. has also advocated for a prescribed safe supply meaning those who use illicit substances could acquire safer alternatives that are free of contaminants such as fentanyl and etizolam from pharmacies that are prescribed by regulated health professionals.
On the six-year anniversary of the public health emergency declaration, Premier John Horgan; Sheila Malcolmson, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions; and Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer issued a joint statement on the steps taken so far and the steps still needed to be taken to move B.C. in the right direction.
Today, our hearts are filled with sorrow as we mark the six-year anniversary of the province’s overdose emergency. We grieve with British Columbians who have lost loved ones – family, friends and neighbours – to the toxic drug crisis.
The street drug supply has become increasingly toxic over the past six years and even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, we had made important progress on reducing the number of deaths in our province, but the toxicity of the supply has increased faster than we’ve been able to stand up new services.
At the start of the public health emergency, we rapidly scaled up overdose prevention measures. Since then, we’ve added more options for medication-assisted treatment, inhalation overdose prevention, and community-driven harm-reduction measures. We are leading nationally on prescribed safe supply and decriminalization of people who use drugs.
There has been some indication that Health Canada is considering an exemption to B.C. in response to the overdose crisis but has taken no official public stance on the matter yet.