Naloxone a ‘band-aid’ response to B.C.’s toxic drug death crisis: advocates

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — As the number of deaths from toxic drugs in B.C. continues at a devastating, record-breaking pace, advocates say access to naloxone kits is not enough.

The BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) says more than one million naloxone kits have been shipped across B.C. since 2012, more than a quarter of them in 2020 alone.

The kits are used to reverse the potentially fatal effects of toxic drugs and opioid overdoses. In 2016 a policy change eliminated the need for a prescription to access a kit. The Take Home Naloxone program ramped up, expanding distribution at community sites and pharmacies, offering kits for free, and expanding training.

According to the BCCDC mathematical modelling shows naloxone averted more than 3,000 potentially fatal overdoses between January 2015 and March of this year.

But in 2020, approximately five people died every day from toxic, illicit drugs.

News: More than 1 million #naloxone kits have been shipped throughout BC since the inception of the Take Home Naloxone program in 2012. Despite access to naloxone, the overdose crisis continues in BC. Read more: https://t.co/SrxpKebl5v pic.twitter.com/KRSqTGVYa0

— BC Centre for Disease Control (@CDCofBC) June 8, 2021

Jessica Van Norren, a program manager with Rain City Housing & Support Society, says the supply of illicit drugs is only getting more toxic, and more lethal

“Five years into the overdose crisis and we are still losing our friends, family, and colleagues at unprecedented numbers. I have responded to hundreds of overdoses, and all but one has been reversed. In a time of a poisoning epidemic, and now benzos now being in our substances, naloxone is not enough,” she says in a statement.

Dr. Jane Buxton, harm reduction lead for the BCCDC says the Take Home Naloxone program has saved lives, but more needs to be done to intervene to stop “preventable and unacceptable deaths.”

A member of a peer-led group that advises the BCCDC outlined the policy changes people who use drugs have been advocating for throughout the years-long public health emergency.

“I believe naloxone is not enough, it does save lives but it’s only an afterthought, a band-aid solution, we have to focus on preventing overdoses, and the only solution I feel, is safer supply. Offer folks many options, in order to be able to meet people where they are at,” writes Paul.

“If we decriminalize all substances and make substance misuse a medical issue, not a criminal one, more people would get the care they need.”