The Harm Reduction Lead for the BC Centre for Disease Control (BC CDC) says even with 50,000 overdoses B.C. reversed with naloxone in the province, officials can’t sit back on their laurels.

Dr. Jane Buxton says there are still more overdose deaths happening than acceptable, and so the work needs to continue.

“It’s not just people who are injecting. People are at a risk of an overdose if they are smoking, so we need to make sure that all those that may be at risk have a kit and have people around them,” she said. “So we just need to make sure that people can be using in the most safe environment that is possible.”

Between January and August of this year, there were 690 overdose deaths in the province, down from 1,037 last year. And she says its also important that they also have naloxone kits – which are available at nearly 1,700 sites provincewide – handy.

“People can go to these sites and there is training. There’s also training online as well. But it is important for people who have a kit to be able to recognize an overdose as well as knowing how to respond – giving breaths as well as giving the naloxone.”

“People are using substances which they do not know what it contains. So it’s really important that we make available substances that where know what they are taking so that people aren’t dying each time when the use the drugs.”

Data also shows that BC EHS paramedics respond to an average of 64 overdose or poisoning calls per day in the province. Through the first eight months of this year, paramedics in Kamloops responded to 421 overdose calls  – or about 52 a month.

There were 24 overdose deaths in Kamloops between January and August of 2019.