3857 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

Advocates say it's imperative the B.C. government put more money into creating more widely accessible overdose prevention sites, days after the latest death toll from the toxic drug crisis was revealed.

 

On Tuesday, the B.C. Coroners' Service reported 211 people died due to poisoned drugs in January, at a rate of around seven people per day.

 

More than 11,000 people have died since the province declared a public health emergency in 2016 — almost none of them at overdose prevention sites, where trained volunteers work to prevent fatalities and connect drug users with other services.

 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...es-bc-1.6775263

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So BC has 44 sites.  Victoria has 7 of them (only CoV has them, none in any of the other area municipalities).  So we have 16% of the sites, yet we are only 1.8% of the BC population.  So per capita, we have almost 10x the amount of sites.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 12 March 2023 - 07:12 AM.

[Nparker]

Our political and health care decision makers have utterly and reprehensibly failed both the mentally ill and the general population.

[Victoria Watcher]

[Love the rock]

 

Advocates say it's imperative the B.C. government put more money into creating more widely accessible overdose prevention sites, days after the latest death toll from the toxic drug crisis was revealed.

 

On Tuesday, the B.C. Coroners' Service reported 211 people died due to poisoned drugs in January, at a rate of around seven people per day.

 

More than 11,000 people have died since the province declared a public health emergency in 2016 — almost none of them at overdose prevention sites, where trained volunteers work to prevent fatalities and connect drug users with other services.

 

 

So BC has 44 sites.  Victoria has 7 of them (only CoV has them, none in any of the other area municipalities).  So we have 16% of the sites, yet we are only 1.8% of the BC population.  So per capita, we have almost 10x the amount of sites.

 

Could it be that the B.C. government thinks it’s cheaper to have people die than to open up 100% accessible treatment beds .If not how could Alberta’s reasoning be the exact opposite of B.C ?

Edited by Love the rock, 12 March 2023 - 02:16 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

There is no doubt the deaths open up social housing. Something like 47% are people in supportive or subsidized housing.

35 units turn over that way each month.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 12 March 2023 - 02:15 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Island Health says motion-detection sensors installed in bathrooms to alert health-care staff to possible drug overdoses have likely saved one life and could save more.

 

In October, the sensors were installed in Courtenay in bathrooms identified as high-risk spaces for drug poisonings — a mental-health and substance-use services site and the Comox Valley Nursing Centre.

 

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The sensors monitor movement and how long a person has occupied the washroom, and each site sets time limits based on experience and needs.

 

If a client has been in the bathroom for 10 minutes or hasn’t moved for one minute, the sensor sends a text notification to designated responders, such as a clinician, site supervisor or administrative staff to follow up.

 

Island Health says the sensors alerted a clinician to an unresponsive person in a bathroom who could otherwise have died.

 

Trial use of the sensors is now expanding to Nanaimo Regional General Hospital, where they will be in place for a few months to be evaluated.

 

In 2022, there were at least 2,272 illicit drug toxicity deaths in B.C., including 386 in the Island Health region. Most fatal overdoses occur in men using drugs alone.

 

The University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research says more than 50 overdoses happen in bathrooms in B.C. every month, based on 911 calls to B.C. Emergency Health Services. That number is likely an underestimation of the number of drug poisonings that actually occur in washrooms, it says.

 

 

https://www.timescol...erdoses-6707301

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 15 March 2023 - 05:11 PM.

[Nparker]

But getting clean/recovery still isn't a priority. 

[Victoria Watcher]

[Victoria Watcher]

Nanaimo mall staff threatened with needle attached to bow and arrow

 

https://www.timescol...d-arrow-6717406

 

 

 

 

 

Suspect arrested after security guard stabbed near Ladysmith

 

https://www.timescol...dysmith-6717346

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully more free street drugs can help improve this situation.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 17 March 2023 - 10:41 AM.

[Nparker]

Nanaimo mall staff threatened with needle attached to bow and arrow...Hopefully more free street drugs can help improve this situation.

It should help ensure that the bows and arrows have a steady supply of ammunition.

On a related note, is the use of bows and arrows by non-indigenous street people considered cultural appropriation?

[Victoria Watcher]

This man will die, but the system is frozen

I have never felt so angry in my life.

A young man we have supported and cared for, for over 20 years, is going to die on the street. No question about that. It is only a matter of time.

Many others share the same fate.

The source of my anger is that the system stands there frozen, mouthing off the same conflicting narrative that they know what they are doing and that our loved ones are in good hands.

We have repeatedly begged the system to step in and help this man.

When he dies, as he surely will, our family is going to sue everyone who has stood in the way of getting this man the help he has been denied as a human being.

The collateral, emotional and financial damage to families is immense.

Deryk Houston

Sooke


https://www.timescol...e-price-6738874

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 22 March 2023 - 03:28 AM.

[Barrrister]

Deryk, I enjoyed meeting with you a number of years ago. I am the lawyer on Rockland. My familly has had to go through the same thing so next time you are in Victoria let me know and we can get together or if you want I am happy to go out to Sooke.

[LJ]

^I'm not sure Deryk is on this forum to get your message.

[Barrrister]

I know another forum, but thanks for pointing it out.

[Victoria Watcher]

Double post.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 March 2023 - 01:59 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Canada's highly toxic illicit drug supply is worsening with the emergence of xylazine, a dangerous and unpredictable animal tranquillizer that's putting drug users' lives at risk in alarming new ways, and advocates are calling for more to be done to address the issue.

The severely potent veterinary sedative, known on the street as "tranq dope" or "zombie drug," is being cut with opioids like fentanyl to prolong their effects, but can also cause hours-long blackouts and horrific, painful wounds that can lead to amputation.

"It puts people in sort of blackout states, people are at really high risk of walking into traffic because they don't really know what's going on," said Matt Johnson, a drug user and harm reduction worker at the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre in Toronto.


https://www.cbc.ca/n...upply-1.6787192

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 23 March 2023 - 01:58 AM.

[Barrrister]

The drug leads to vehicle violence.

[Victoria Watcher]

Imagine writing this in 1990:

 

 

 

 

 

Canada's highly toxic illicit drug supply

[Mike K.]

From February, with the key element missing in the pasted clip from the CBC, being that this stuff doesn’t respond to Naloxone, at least not well:

Fentanyl is now so common and blasé in terms of its effects, that it is being cut with a tranquilizer that gives users an even stronger high, for hours at a time. Except naloxone is no longer effective against overdoses as a result of using that cocktail. It's called tranq, and it's appearing on the west coast now after being on the east coast for a while.

[Daveyboy]

The drug leads to vehicle violence.

And if there were no cars, this wouldn't be happening.  Car owner= stigma, toxic drug user= no stigma