Vancouver Coastal Health has issued a rare warning about fentanyl being detected in cocaine samples.
On March 19, Vancouver Coastal Health issued a rare warning about cocaine.
According to federal data, in 2018 the dangerous synthetic opioid fentanyl appeared in 3.3 percent of cocaine samples that law-enforcement agencies sent to Health Canada’s Drug Analysis Service (DAS). That’s up from 2.5 percent the previous year, 0.94 percent in 2016, and 0.31 percent in 2015. The numbers are low but rising.
Heroin, meanwhile, is being supplanted by fentanyl and the even more potent synthetic opioid carfentanil.
In 2017, DAS for the first time found more heroin samples contained fentanyl than did not. In 2018 the trend continued, with 2,571 heroin samples containing fentanyl compared to 1,217 recorded as straight heroin.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan’s Vancouver East riding is often described as the epicentre of Canada’s overdose crisis. On the phone from Ottawa, Kwan said B.C. needs to continue with harm reduction and expand existing services with more radical initiatives.
“Dead people don’t detox,” Kwan told the Straight. “We need to take every measure possible to save lives.”
She suggested Canada look to Portugal, where, in 2001, the government eliminated criminal penalties for the personal possession of drugs and invested heavily in addiction treatment.
“We need to address this as a health issue, truly, and not a criminal-justice issue,” Kwan said. “And until we decriminalize, I don’t think we’re going to get there.”
Decriminalization has received support from top provincial health officials but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly said a Liberal government will not consider this with regard to hard drugs.
Another idea that Kwan described as deserving of public debate is regulated supply. She referenced a February 2019 report by the B.C. Centre on Substance Use that lays out a legal framework for people addicted to opioids to obtain prescription heroin from a pharmaceutical company as opposed to from dealers on the streets.
“People are putting their heads together, saying, ‘This might work and might save lives,’ ” Kwan said. “Any initiative that could achieve those goals is worth exploring.”
According to the BCCDC’S latest monthly report, the province surpassed 1,500 fatal overdoses for the first time in a single year in 2018. Fentanyl was associated with 87 percent of those deaths, up from 15 percent five years earlier. Over the phone, Vancouver Coastal Health’s Dr. Mark Lysyshyn noted the extent to which law enforcement has failed to curb fentanyl’s infiltration of illicit-drug markets.
“The more we try to enforce [prohibition], the more potent the drugs become in order to evade enforcement action,” he said. “That’s the pattern.”
Like Kwan, Lysyshyn argued that it is time for Canada to begin real discussions about regulating supply.
“We know that street drugs come from a completely unregulated market, and…each time a substance passes hands, it can be adulterated or errors can be made,” he said. “So I’m in support of all proposals that seek to provide people with safer alternatives to the drugs they are using now.” g
Moving out of a home or a storefront is a part of life in a constantly changing city.
It’s an experience often steeped in a mix of emotions, mostly sadness from having to say goodbyes. That’s why it’s natural for Jenell Parsons to feel sentimental about having to leave her first store in Vancouver.
After years of selling pies at farmers markets and other public events as well as at wholesale locations, Parsons opened a shop at the northwest corner of Fraser Street and East 19th Avenue in April 2017.
“It was our flagship. It was the first place that I opened up to the public,” the founder of the Pie Hole recalled in a phone interview with the Georgia Straight.
Known for its sweet and savoury pies, the business expanded to a second location in Burnaby in 2018.
According to Parsons, the Pie Hole will open another store in Vancouver in April this year. It will be in Kitsilano, at the former site of a fresh-produce and juice shop at 1864 West 4th Avenue.
However, the original store on Fraser will be closing. The East Vancouver property where the business is located is slated for redevelopment.
A six-storey mixed-use building has been proposed for 3429–3469 Fraser Street. The project involves 104 market-rental housing units and spaces for retail.
The current two-level commercial building on the property, which also houses a variety of other shops, will be demolished.
“It’s going to be sad,” Parsons said. “I put everything into that. My husband and I built the whole store up ourselves and put a lot of love into this. So it’s going to be hard to see it come down.”
Parsons said the Fraser Street property was sold in December 2017. “Rize [Alliance Properties] bought it. They’ve been pretty transparent about it,” she said.
The “design rationale” for the development’s rezoning application indicates that the project received considerable input from city-hall staff. “The current building massing and commensurate proposed density are a result of City of Vancouver Staff commentary and advice received May 1, 2018 and significant consultation with Staff over the past 8 months,” the document states.
The design rationale also notes that the development will “add increased purpose-built rental residential density along a major arterial road within two blocks of the Fraser St and Kingsway intersection served by two distinct bus routes”. Moreover, the project will help “ease the demand on existing, older rental stock”.
Parsons wants to return to the area in the future, but she accepts that it’s going to be difficult.
“We’ve talked about it but, I mean, it’s hard to know,” Parsons said. “It takes a few years…between permits and building and for the whole thing to be up and running to be occupied again. So I’d like to be back at that neighbourhood. It’s hard to say.…it’s on the table, though.” g