With the signs pointing to a big increase in carfentanil related deaths in BC this year, at least one person on the front lines says the opioid crisis is far from over.

ASK Wellness Society Executive Director Bob Hughes says they continue to see the impacts of a contaminated drug supply.

“The provision of naloxone has literally saved thousands and thousands of lives,” he said.

“The challenge now is to actually move beyond just simply that acute response and actually look at finding more meaningful ways of helping people.”

Hughes adds a good first step to ensure that people get better is to find them a place to live.

“That’s what we are seeing with Spero House and the development on West Victoria in Kamloops,” he added.

“The task at hand now is to see people actually address their addictions in a meaningful way that doesn’t continue to see people teetering on the edge of death because of their inability to stop using this contaminated product.”

He also noted that officials locally are looking into the costs and risks of using suboxone implants as a treatment option.

“If we have something that can prevent people from getting high from the use of an opiate, we can literally change the entire circumstances related to this crisis,” said Hughes. “We’ll finally have something, apart chasing after people with such severe addictions and bringing them back to life and then only finding out that they can are continuing to use substances.”

“This is one that has tremendous hope.”

Data from the BC Coroners Service indicates that carfentanil detected deaths are into the double digits in each of the first three months of 2019.