Straight Talk

OVERDOSE CALLS SPIKED ON HASTINGS LAST WINTER

Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside entered a new and more intense phase of the opioid crisis last winter, one that was characterized by significantly more overdoses beyond the increase that had already occurred before 2016.

That picture emerges from B.C. Emergency Health Services data supplied at the Straight’s request. It covers 911 calls for suspected overdoses in what is often described as ground zero for the drug epidemic: the two-block stretch of East Hastings Street that runs from Carrall Street to Main Street.

The statistics show that during the first six months of 2016, paramedics and firefighters were very busy responding to overdose calls there, at an average of 49 each month.

Then, in September of that year, the number of calls jumped to 103, and it continued to rise, to a peak of 262 in November 2016.

A downward trend followed. For the first six months of 2017, calls declined but still averaged 180 per month.

Then the situation appears to have settled. During the last six months of 2017, there was an average of 125 overdose calls each month. That’s far lower than the peak of 262 but still more than double the average for the first six months of 2016.

The rise coincides with a period when fentanyl was detected in increasing numbers of overdose victims and when an even more dangerous synthetic opioid, carfentanil, is known to have arrived in B.C.

Brian Twaites is an advanced-care paramedic who works for the B.C. Ambulance Service in the Downtown Eastside. “Did we expect it to get worse?” he asked in a telephone interview. “We didn’t think it would, but it did. And so we’ve carried on and dealt with it the best we can.”

In addition to call volumes, he noted that calls are more intense.

“Because of the strength of the drugs, these calls take longer than they used to,” Twaites said. “The resuscitation period is longer, requiring repeated doses of Narcan [brand name of naloxone].”

Twaites also called attention to the total number of calls, noting “compassion fatigue” has become an issue.

During the two years for which the Straight was supplied numbers, these two blocks of East Hastings Street saw 3,004 calls for suspected overdoses (compared to 42,716 for all of B.C.).

Twaites said the provincial government has come through with additional resources.

B.C. Emergency Health Services received $5 million in new provincial funding in November 2016 and, in January 2018, hired 10 full-time and eight part-time paramedics. It is also in the process of adding 20 paramedic specialists, who provide clinical and technical support.

“We are getting more paramedic units out on the road, and we’ve developed a resilience course for occupation stress,” Twaites said.

According to the B.C. Coroners Service, 1,422 people in British Columbia died of an illicit-drug overdose last year, up from 993 in 2016, 518 in 2015, and 369 in 2014. Fentanyl, carfentanil, and analogs were associated with 81 percent of deaths in 2017. > TRAVIS LUPICK

COPE SEEKS LEFT-WING UNITY AROUND HOUSING

Vancouver’s oldest left-wing party wants to form an electoral alliance around the housing issue.

Connie Hubbs, cochair of the Coalition of Progressive Electors, said COPE is reaching out to Onecity, the Green Party of Vancouver, the team of former council byelection candidate Jean Swanson, and others.

“We would have to have some agreements on housing affordability if we were to have some kind of electoral alliance,” Hubbs told the Straight in a phone interview.

According to Hubbs, COPE has no plan at present to talk with Vision Vancouver, the party that has ruled the city since 2008.

“I don’t think that Vision intended to bring about the kind of housing crisis that we have now. I don’t think that that was their intention at all,” Hubbs said. “I think they thought that by using market-driven solutions, it would work out. That is the way capitalism is supposed to work. But it didn’t work.

“And a lot of things came together to contribute to that,” she continued. “It wasn’t just the policies of Vision Vancouver. But they were definitely involved with that, and it makes it difficult for COPE to work with Vision.”

Hubbs did not rule out the possibility that COPE may later consider a dialogue with Vision. There are concerns that the so-called progressive vote may fragment, allowing the right-ofcentre Non-partisan Association (NPA) to take back city hall.

“What we’re hoping is certainly not to have an NPA government, because I think there’s many things about that that would be very unfortunate, but on the other hand, COPE isn’t going to ally themselves with those that aren’t prepared to be strong on housing,” Hubbs said.

The next municipal election will be held in October this year.

According to Raj Hundal, a former Vision park-board chair, discussions about forward-thinking solutions to the city’s problems inevitably involve talking about an electoral cooperation with Vision.

“It’s important for progressive organizations like Vision, COPE, and other parties to work together…to make sure that the city of Vancouver does not go backwards to the time when the NPA was in power,” Hundal told the Straight by phone. > CARLITO PABLO