A decade after B.C. declared the toxic drug crisis a public health emergency, little progress has been made in preventing deaths.
Dr. Paxton Bach, a general internist and addiction medicine physician at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, says it’s hard to celebrate successes while five British Columbians still die each day.
“There’s no population in B.C that hasn’t been touched by this wave of overdose deaths,” said Bach.
“This is a crisis that is touching every geographic corner of our province, every community and every socio-demographic status.”
He says the increasingly volatile and unpredictable drug supply is to blame.
While the number of people using opioids in Vancouver hasn’t increased much, he says the consequences and risks have increased by orders of magnitude.
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Meanwhile, he says the politics and rhetoric surrounding the crisis have significantly influenced public perception and policy.
“I would like to see us be able to agree that this is an apolitical public health crisis. And when we’re talking about the overdoses or various contributing factors, it’s really important that we’re able to use the level of nuance that is deserved for these conversations,” said Bach.
He noted that there are individual success stories, programs, and interventions worth highlighting that have demonstrated some success and should be celebrated.
Approximately 18,000 people have died from toxic illicit drugs in B.C. since a public health emergency was declared on April 14, 2016.
For Bach, it’s hard to be optimistic when the death toll is still as high as it is.