The latest news articles featuring BC Centre on Substance Use.
AMS plans to distribute 250-500 fentanyl testing strips to students
September 17, 2021 | The Ubyssey
The AMS plans to distribute strips to help students test their drugs for fentanyl as the overdose crisis in BC continues and the street drug supplies become increasingly potent and unpredictable. Fentanyl, a powerful opioid, has contributed to at least 85 per cent of the more than 2,700 overdose dea...
With rising overdoses, British Columbia expands experimental prescription initiative
September 10, 2021 | PRI
The Canadian province of British Columbia was already years into a public health emergency when COVID-19 arrived: deadly drug overdoses. A main driver has been the quality of street drugs, which increasingly contain even more potent opioids analogs, like fentanyl, or other substances, like animal t...
An estimated 17 Canadians die every day from an opioid overdose. Here’s how the federal political parties plan to tackle the crisis
September 07, 2021 | Toronto Star
Each day since the federal party leaders hit the campaign trail last month, an estimated 17 Canadians have died from an accidental drug overdose. And more than 21,000 Canadians died of accidental overdoses between 2016, when B.C. declared a public health emergency, and December 2020, according to st...
Cheyenne Johnson and Dr. Nel Wieman: Ending the toxic drug crisis means addressing racism, colonialism and the root causes of substance use
September 01, 2021 | The Province
This week, on International Overdose Awareness Day, communities across B.C. and Canada commemorated the thousands of lives lost to drug poisoning — and called for action to end policies that are creating harms around the world. Here in B.C., Tuesday was the sixth International Overdose Awareness D...
More than 1,000 people have died in B.C. from suspected drug toxicity in first half of 2021
August 31, 2021 | Vancouver Sun
Drug toxicity is now the leading cause of death for young people in British Columbia, according to the B.C. Coroners Service, which has recorded at least 1,011 overdose deaths in the first six months of 2021 — the worst first six months of a year ever. B.C.’s chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said thi...
