The number of illicit drug deaths in British Columbia shows no sign of declining, with the BC Coroners Service announcing last week that 136 people in the province died of illicit drug use in April 2017. It is the second-highest recorded number in a single month in B.C., behind 144 illicit drug deaths in December 2016; and there are concerns that ordinary people might be at risk when it comes to assisting people who are suspected to have overdosed.
In the first four months of 2017, 488 people around the province have died of drug overdoses. In 2016—the worst year for illicit drug deaths on record—a total of 935 deaths were recorded. Men are overwhelmingly the victims, accounting for 404 of this year’s deaths. Those aged 30 to 39 account for the most victims, with 144 deaths.
Almost 90 per cent of illicit drug overdose deaths occurred inside. There were no deaths reported at supervised consumption or drug overdose prevention sites. Only one overdose death was recorded in Kamloops in April; 13 people in the city have died of overdoses so far this year. Local townships that have recorded an illicit drug overdose death in 2017 are Cache Creek, Lillooet, Logan Lake, and Merritt.
Recently a Manitoba postal worker refused to perform CPR on a woman he feared might have overdosed on fentanyl, a powerful opioid behind the rise in overdose deaths. Winnipeg mail carrier Corey Gallagher discovered a woman who was not breathing in an apartment lobby while he was delivering mail late last month. A 911 dispatcher put him through to a paramedic, who told him to perform CPR.
Don Martentette, director of first-aid programs for the Canadian Red Cross, says he sympathizes with Gallagher. “I can’t imagine the feeling that he was going through, knowing that he could have or wanted to help. We know it’s a legitimate concern, because fentanyl is everywhere now.”
Perry Kendall, British Columbia’s provincial health officer, notes that while the drugs are a concern for first responders, there have been tens of thousands of overdose reversals in B.C. where no one else on the scene was affected.
He said only a few cases, which involved police on drug busts or prison guards who were exposed in a cell, led to someone becoming ill.
“I don’t think we’ve had any in a member of the public who has responded to an overdose,” Kendall said.
