July saw a near record number of overdose deaths in British Columbia and the CEO of ASK Wellness is not optimistic about that trend changing soon.

Appearing on the NL Morning News, Bob Hughes said despite their best efforts, the opioid crisis isn’t getting any better.

He said the problem would be even worse if not for the work of front line workers. “We’ve thrown everything at this in terms of trying to keep people alive and thank God that there has been naloxone and overdose prevention sites and the outreach response.”

He says without them, things would be a disaster. “It would just be unfathomable to imagine without the efforts of paramedics and outreach teams of just the carnage that we’d be facing.”

Hughes says current legislation is handcuffing organizations like ASK Wellness to get chronic addicts the help they need. “I’m hopeful that the government is going to invest further into recovery based housing and programming that does provide a really clear avenue for people to work on their addictions and try to intervene.”

Hughes says as long as there is a contaminated drug supply and no legislation to push people towards recovery, organizations like ASK Wellness will continue chasing their tails.