Overdose calls up to 174 last week

Vancouver emergency crews dealt with 174 overdose calls last week, according to mayor Gregor Robertson. This was the highest weekly number so far this year and much higher than historical data.

While most calls from Feb. 26 to March 5 were in the Downtown Eastside, the number of cases outside the downtown area also increased. There were 14 suspected overdose deaths across Vancouver during that period, six more than the previous week.

Robertson said drug overdose deaths due to the ongoing fentanyl crisis continue to have a devastating impact throughout Vancouver.

“The city shoulders a huge burden of the drug overdose response, and our first responders and front line community workers are at a breaking point,” he said in a news release on Thursday.

B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake said drug users need to reach out and access supervised injection sites or rehabilitation services if needed.

NDP critic Selina Robinson, however, said there would never have been a crisis in the first place if the B.C. Liberal government had taken a holistic approach to mental health, poverty, and various other contributing issues.

“We’re putting gauze on a gushing wound and we keep putting gauze on it and it keeps gushing,” said Robinson. “I think this tells the story of a government that has been sitting back on its heels for a very, very, very long time.”

A record 922 people died from overdoses last year in B.C., where a public health emergency has been declared. The city says nearly 25 per cent of those deaths were in Vancouver.