Illegal drug chains being disrupted, leading to ‘incredibly toxic’ supply in B.C.

Pandemic has led to more synthetic drugs being added to the street supply

VANCOUVER — COVID19 restrictions are leading to increased toxicity of street drug supply and subsequent overdoses, British Columbia’s provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said on Monday.

“It’s been more challenging to get some of the drugs into the province,” said Henry.

“Which means they are cut with different things or attempted to be manufactured within the province. That has led to an increased toxicity, which, of course, is part of the tragedy that we’re seeing in the last little while.”

Henry said there had been clusters of overdoses due to the “incredibly toxic drug supply.”

According to the latest B.C. Coroners Service figures, there were 260 overdose deaths in the first three months of the year, with a big jump between February (70) and March (113).

Karen Ward, a City of Vancouver drug policy adviser, said every aspect of the drug trade supply line had been impacted by COVID-19, made worse because players along the chain are not able to communicate like within the legal industry.

She said this had led to more synthetic drugs — like fentanyl

— being added to the street supply to meet demand at the same prices.

“The actual opiate content is decreasing with a mush of stuff being added,” Ward told Postmedia.

She said that overdose figures for April had not been released, but anecdotally she believed deaths were higher than usual. There are public health emergencies in B.C. for COVID-19 and the overdose crisis.

The worst year for overdose deaths in B.C. was 2018, with 1,542 fatalities. Around 300 people die in car accidents in B.C. each year and over 600 people died from suicide in 2019.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 has killed 143 people so far this year.

Henry said only 16 cases of COVID-19 were reported in B.C. between noon Saturday and noon Monday, with two deaths.

There are 335 active COVID-19 cases in B.C., with 47 people in hospital — including 12 in intensive care.

There are 14 outbreaks in long-term care and assisted living facilities and five in hospital acute care wards.

Henry said there were no new community or health care facility outbreaks over the long weekend.