Close X
Saturday, January 25, 2025
ADVT 
National

B.C. Wants Federal Crackdown On Fentanyl Trafficking To Fight Health Emergency

The Canadian Press, 27 Jul, 2016 11:13 AM
    VANCOUVER — British Columbia is asking the federal government to help it crack down on fentanyl overdoses that have been classified a public health emergency in the province.
     
    Premier Christy Clark wants the federal government to restrict access to devices, such as pill presses and tableting machines, and to pursue stronger penalties against people who import and traffic in fentanyl.
     
    Clark also wants Ottawa to ask the Canada Border Services Agency to search small packages for fentanyl to stop the drug coming into the country.
     
    Recent statistics from the coroner's service in B.C. show there were 371 deaths in the first six months of this year, about a 74 per cent increase compared with the same period last year.
     
     
    The service says the proportion of deaths where fentanyl was detected in toxicology tests jumped to about 60 per cent and that the drug was either used alone or in combination with other drugs.
     
    British Columbia declared a public health emergency in April when overdose deaths surged to an alarming rate in the first few months of this year.
     
    Clark says the province is also planning to improve access to treatment programs including its opioid substitution program.
     
    "Drug overdoses are absolutely senseless deaths, every one of them is a preventable tragedy that families feel in the worst possible way," she told a news conference at a hospital in Vancouver on Thursday.
     
     
    "Some have lost their lives to a tainted pill at a party, they didn't know what they were taking. Others were taken by that needless burden of addiction that they can't kick. We need to support all of them."
     
    The B.C. Centre for Disease Control also released measures it believes will help tackle the problem after a meeting between public health officials and the coroner's service.
     
    It wants to expand the availability of naloxone to reverse overdoses, expand access to opioid substitution treatments like Suboxone and methadone, and to increase checks on street drugs, among other things.

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Parking Rate Hike In Vancouver's West End Won't Affect Longtime Residents: City

    Parking Rate Hike In Vancouver's West End Won't Affect Longtime Residents: City
    It's considering recommendations that could boost the cost of a residents-only parking permit to $50 per month, up from $6 per month.

    Parking Rate Hike In Vancouver's West End Won't Affect Longtime Residents: City

    Edmonton Doctor Ismail Taher Sentenced To 30 Days In Jail For Groping Co-Worker

    Edmonton Doctor Ismail Taher Sentenced To 30 Days In Jail For Groping Co-Worker
    Ismail Taher, who is 38, was also given two years probation. The woman said he touched her breasts and buttocks in 2013.

    Edmonton Doctor Ismail Taher Sentenced To 30 Days In Jail For Groping Co-Worker

    Pedestrian Struck in Hit And Run Collision By South Asian Male in Abbotsford

    Pedestrian Struck in Hit And Run Collision By South Asian Male in Abbotsford
    29-year-old male had been walking northbound in a marked crosswalk when he was struck by a left-turning, dark blue, newer sedan driven by an older South Asian male. 

    Pedestrian Struck in Hit And Run Collision By South Asian Male in Abbotsford

    Fentanyl A Main Cause In Surge In B.C. Drug Deaths This Year

    Statistics from the coroner's service show there were 371 deaths in the first six months of this year, about a 74 per cent increase compared with the same period last year.

    Fentanyl A Main Cause In Surge In B.C. Drug Deaths This Year

    Langley Police Need Your Help To Find Missing Woman

    Langley Police Need Your Help To Find Missing Woman
    Nicole SATTLER is 29 years old and was last seen by family on May 5th of this year.

    Langley Police Need Your Help To Find Missing Woman

    Former NDP Constituency Worker Faces Charges Following Alleged Theft From MLA's Office

    Former NDP Constituency Worker Faces Charges Following Alleged Theft From MLA's Office
    Marnie Ruth Offman has been charged with fraud, theft over $5,000 and uttering forged cheques.

    Former NDP Constituency Worker Faces Charges Following Alleged Theft From MLA's Office