The realities of addiction treatment in Nelson and beyond

published on August 19, 2026 by Heather Austin in Frequency News

Dr. Kora DeBeck of the BC Centre on Substance Use says B.C.’s voluntary addiction treatment system still has a lot of gaps.

“…Within the voluntary addiction treatment system, there are still lots of waits. It’s not very accessible and also something that the head BC coroner and our provincial health officer have highlighted multiple times is that addiction treatment is not currently regulated. We don’t know what outcomes are for folks who go into addiction treatment in BC. And so in terms of there being a robust addiction treatment system, that’s just not there…”

There are many factors that affect someone’s ability to access treatment – and what happens afterwards…