The number of unnecessary and premature deaths in British Columbia continue to shock us. Since 2016, when a public health emergency was declared, over 12,000 souls have died due to toxic drug supply in British Columbia. The rate of deaths now hovers close to 200 per month, with 2,272 British Columbians dying of toxic drugs in 2022 and 596 between January and March of 2023. The rate of death is close to 7 per day, mostly male and often young. This compares to a rate of just over one person per day in 2016, when the public health emergency was declared. What a loss. Each person who passes away is someone’s son, daughter, friend, perhaps father or mother, all unique souls with so much to contribute had their lives not been cut short. Each death brings heartbreak and irreparable loss to families and friends.
No community is spared. The rate of death on the North Shore sits between 20 and 30 per year, mostly men in the prime of their lives, mostly dying in their homes, and most without a history of prior overdose. In most cases, their heartbroken families were not aware of the drug use that would lead to their loved one dying. Their lifeless bodies are found in bedrooms and basements by parents, siblings and friends.
To put these terrible numbers into some context, toxic drug deaths now account for more “years lost” compared to any other cause of death in our Province apart from cancer. Less than one person per day will die in motor vehicle accidents in British Columbia. Less than two per day will die of suicide.
Over the last seven h years, since the public health emergency was declared, various public health measures have been introduced. There has been a focused public education campaign. Naloxone has been widely distributed, and has saved lives, albeit with subsequent brain damage suffered by many patients. Safe injection sites have been established. The Province has implemented programs of “safe supply” by prescription and more recently possession of street drugs has been “decriminalized” to reduce stigma. Criminal prosecutions of dealers continues and our courts are award strict sentences to deter drug criminals. All the while, the rate of toxic drugs deaths escalates. Toxic drugs are available on the streets now as ever before. None of this is working.
The root cause of all this carnage is a toxic drug supply. Fentanyl and carfentanyl are being manufactured and distributed by criminals whose only interest is their profit. Instead of being manufactured in laboratories with appropriate safety standards, illicit drugs are manufactured in makeshift labs (sometimes literally in bathtubs) where quality control is impossible. Given the toxicity of fentanyl and carfentanyl (the latter being 10,000 times more potent than morphine) lack of consistent purity and dosage errors are inevitable. Hence we lose near seven British Columbians each day. They didn’t intend to die; they just wanted to get high.
What we are doing is not working. We cannot prescribe, prosecute, safely inject nor resuscitate our way out of the toxic drug crises. To save lives, we must legalize and regulate the recreational drug markets, to create a safe supply. Then at least those who use drugs will continue to live. The alternative is random and premature death.
*Jim Hanson is three-term councillor, and chair of the North Shore Standing Committee on Substance Use.
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