A man uses drugs on Dunlevy Avenue on Jan. 24, 2024, the same day the B.C. Coroners Service announced there were 2,511 suspected unregulated toxic drug deaths last year. PHOTO BY NICK PROCAYLO /PNG
“Decriminalization is not responsible for these deaths” — B.C. Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe
On the day B.C.’s chief coroner announced a record number of toxic drug deaths last year, newly released documents showed the B.C. NDP government has added 464 net new treatment beds over the past six years.
Opposition critics say that’s far short of what’s needed in light of B.C. Coroners Service figures show 2,511 people died after using toxic street drugs in 2023 — an average of seven people a day. It’s the highest number since a public health emergency was declared in 2016.
B.C. United’s addictions critic, Elenore Sturko, said the number of new treatment beds, when compared to the rate at which people are dying of drug toxicity, underscores the government’s “lackadaisical” approach to the overdose crisis.
“We need a truly recovery-oriented system of care, which this government has absolutely failed to provide whatsoever,” Sturko told Postmedia News. “Whether through a lack of housing, through a lack of education, through a failure to provide adequate access to health services, this government is creating the opposite of a recovery community. They are actually keeping people sick.”
In September 2017, there were 3,035 community substance use beds, according to Ministry of Health documents obtained through freedom of information by B.C. United and provided to Postmedia News. As of this month, there were 3,499 adult and youth substance use beds, according to the ministry of mental health and addictions — showing a net increase of 464.
B.C. Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe, making her last public address before her retirement in February, was candid in her assessment of B.C.’s shortcomings in reducing overdose deaths.
“Current treatment services are simply not able to address the scale of the public health emergency in which we find ourselves,” she said.
Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside said the government has to keep people alive in order to connect them to care, which is why the government’s program to provide safer alternatives to toxic street drugs is key to preventing deaths and separating people from predatory drug dealers.
Whiteside touted the recently announced road-to-recovery addiction treatment model at St. Paul’s Hospital, a 34-bed program that aims to provide a seamless transition through detox, stabilization, treatment and recovery to address concerns about long waiting times. The province is working with health authorities to scale up that model across the province, she said.
The province is approaching the one-year mark in its three-year pilot project with decriminalization of possession of 2.5 grams or less of hard drugs. The experiment so far has been rocky, with local mayors raising the alarm about rampant open drug use, concerns that were answered by the B.C. NDP with a new law passed in October to ban drug use in most public spaces — a law that was swiftly blocked by the courts.
Lapointe addressed the political rhetoric surrounding drug decriminalization and B.C.’s safe supply program, which provides prescription opioids as an alternative to toxic street drugs.
“Decriminalization is not responsible for these deaths,” she said. Illicit fentanyl, which was present in 86 per cent of drug toxicity deaths, is responsible, she said. Lapointe said there’s no evidence that prescribed opioids such a hydromorphone contributed to overdose deaths.
Lapointe disputed suggestions that decriminalization of drugs has caused an increase in people using drugs in public. People are using outdoors because that’s where they live, she said, adding that those who use drugs are more likely to be homeless.
“If public drug use is greater, is it due to decriminalization? Or is it due to more people having nowhere to live?” she asked. “Decriminalization didn’t cause inflation. Decriminalization didn’t cause the housing crisis.”
The coroners service figures show a spike in overdose deaths in supportive housing buildings, representing 28.4 percent of all overdose deaths in 2023, up from 23.5 per cent in 2022. A total of 713 people died in supportive housing.
