Close X
Sunday, March 2, 2025
ADVT 
National

B.C. Overdose Inquest Recommends Better Access To Addictions Treatment

Darpan News Desk, 26 Jan, 2017 11:52 AM
    BURNABY, B.C. — Jurors at a coroner's inquest into the fatal overdose of a 20-year-old man in British Columbia have recommended the province improves treatment options for people struggling with addiction, including access to pharmaceutical-grade heroin.
     
    Brandon Jansen was at a Vancouver Island treatment centre for an addiction to fentanyl when he died in March, a month before the province declared a public health emergency into opioid-related deaths.
     
    He was among 914 people in British Columbia who died from a drug overdose in 2016.
     
    The BC Coroners Service said before the inquest that the process would be an avenue to explore some of the issues arising from the deaths.
     
    Among its 21 recommendations, the five-person jury said standards of practice should be developed for treating people living with opioid addictions, and outcome measures and standards for treatment centres should be improved.
     
     
    It also said access should be expanded to the opioid-replacement therapy suboxone, and to pharmaceutical-grade heroin and hydromorphone for chronic opioid users.  
     
    Jansen had entered the private Sunshine Coast Health Centre for his 11th attempt at treatment involving fentanyl.
     
    The jury found Jansen died from "a mixed opioid drug overdose" and classified his death as accidental.
     
    The centre's chief executive Melanie Jordan said in November that the young man died partly due to the fact that the antidote naloxone and the therapeutic drug suboxone were not available.
     
    An investigation by Vancouver Coastal Health released that month said the centre in Powell River was in compliance with provincial regulations.
     
    The health authority said in a report that the RCMP found evidence suggesting Jansen likely got the drugs that contributed to his death from another patient who obtained them while on a day pass.
     
     
    It said police also found "another illegal substance" in Jansen's room hidden in a container labelled as supplements, which were believed to have been brought to the centre by a family member.
     
    Michelle Jansen said she visited her son the day before he died and did not bring him any supplements or medication.
     
    She said that at the time of his death, the centre did not carry naloxone because it could not get the appropriate authorization from provincial health regulators to administer the drug.
     
    Jansen said that based on the report, staff might have saved her son's life had a higher authority insisted that treatment centre in B.C. be armed with naloxone during an opioid crisis.
     
     
    The centre's chief medical officer was also waiting for approval to prescribe suboxone, which stops cravings and can prevent opioid overdoses.
     
    Jordan has said the centre was granted authorization to prescribe suboxone last July, days after the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. lifted restrictions that previously limited who could administer the drug.
     
    The jury recommended treatment centres provide access to opoiod-replacement interventions.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    UBC President 'Deeply Regrets' Cancellation Of John Furlong Speech

    UBC President 'Deeply Regrets' Cancellation Of John Furlong Speech
    VANCOUVER — University of British Columbia president Santa Ono has apologized for the school's decision to cancel a planned speech by former Vancouver Olympic CEO John Furlong.

    UBC President 'Deeply Regrets' Cancellation Of John Furlong Speech

    Provinces Dig In Heels On Federal Health Funding, Renew Call For Trudeau Meeting

    Provinces Dig In Heels On Federal Health Funding, Renew Call For Trudeau Meeting
    OTTAWA — The federal government's push to close bilateral health-funding deals with individual provinces and territories appears to be losing momentum.

    Provinces Dig In Heels On Federal Health Funding, Renew Call For Trudeau Meeting

    Hundreds Of Veterans Likely Affected By Federal Cuts To Medicinal Pot Allotment

    Hundreds Of Veterans Likely Affected By Federal Cuts To Medicinal Pot Allotment
    OTTAWA — Almost three-quarters of veterans using medical marijuana will feel the impact this spring when the federal government imposes a new limit on the amount of weed for which it will pay.

    Hundreds Of Veterans Likely Affected By Federal Cuts To Medicinal Pot Allotment

    Oldest Known Member Of Southern B.C. Killer Whale Pod Believed Dead

    Oldest Known Member Of Southern B.C. Killer Whale Pod Believed Dead
    VANCOUVER — The death of a whale considered the oldest in the West Coast's southern resident population could particularly affect one animal who may have lost yet another adoptive mother, a wildlife biologist says.

    Oldest Known Member Of Southern B.C. Killer Whale Pod Believed Dead

    RCMP Investigating Body Found In Parking Lot Of Nanaimo Business

    RCMP Investigating Body Found In Parking Lot Of Nanaimo Business
    NANAIMO, B.C. — RCMP says its investigating the death of a man in Nanaimo, B.C.

    RCMP Investigating Body Found In Parking Lot Of Nanaimo Business

    Family Of Lion Dancers Ready To Roar At Vancouver's Chinatown Spring Festival

    Family Of Lion Dancers Ready To Roar At Vancouver's Chinatown Spring Festival
    VANCOUVER — After Jun Ing performed as a lion dancer for the first time in Vancouver's Chinese New Year parade in the 1980s, he remembers wishing it had lasted longer.

    Family Of Lion Dancers Ready To Roar At Vancouver's Chinatown Spring Festival