Fentanyl crisis: B.C. strikes task force to combat overdose deaths

The B.C. government has announced it is forming a group of experts to combat the recent rise in illicit drug overdoses in the province. 

At St. Paul’s Hospital on Wednesday, Premier Christy Clark said the task force will be headed by provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall and director of police services Clayton Pecknold. They’ll be charged with providing leadership and advice to bolster overdose response and prevention measures in B.C. 

Leslie McBain, mother of an overdose victim, addresses media at the task force announcement. 

The premier said the province will act “immediately” on its recommendations.

“It is urgent that we start this work because lives are being lost every day, and this is something that can touch every single family in British Columbia,” Clark said.

In April, Kendall declared a public health emergency after 201 overdose deaths in the first three months of 2016. 

Despite efforts to curb the rising death toll by expanding data-sharing between health services and increasing distribution of the overdose treatment drug naloxone, 371 fatal illicit-drug overdoses had been recorded by June 30, with the synthetic opioid fentanyl detected in 60 per cent of cases, according to B.C. Coroners Service data. 

The province will work with the federal government to establish more supervised-consumption sites in the province. Bill C-2, the Respect for Communities Act, introduced by the federal conservatives last year, has long hampered efforts to set up such services.

B.C. wants the federal government to restrict access to tableting machines and the materials used to process fentanyl-laced illicit drugs.

The province will also pressure the federal government to restrict access to pill presses and tableting machines, limit access to the materials used to manufacture fentanyl and escalate charges for the importation and trafficking of fentanyl. 

A testing service will be established to help drug users determine if their drugs contain adulterants such as fentanyl. A new marketing campaign will warn the public how to prevent, identify and respond to overdoses, while the province works with its health partners to expand treatment options, including access to medications such as Naltrexone, opioid-substitution programs and recovery programs.

Health Minister Terry Lake said he believes if it were any other type of public health emergency, federal resources would be made immediately available. 

“To draw an analogy, if this was SARS or Ebola, Health Canada and border security and immigration would all be focused on this as a health issue that is essentially like a pandemic,” Lake said. 

“So I think, when we put our minds to it, we can do those things, even though they seem difficult.”

Other members of the task force have yet to be determined, but it will include representatives from B.C. Centre for Disease Control and the ministries of health and public safety.

neagland@postmedia.com
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