It’s Addictions Awareness Week in BC and the province’s Minister of Health is urging Ottawa to do something about the fentanyl crisis.
Terry Lake says a number of solutions come to mind when attempting to curb the issue.
“We need to talk to countries like China where fentanyl is coming from to see if there are ways they can help us reduce the flow of the drug as well as looking at the banning of equipment that is made to make fake pills.”
Lake believes a leadership role needs to be taken from the federal government.
“If this was anthrax that was coming into our country we would be much more activated to stop it, so that’s the point we are trying to get through to Ottawa in that an average of 50 British Columbians are dying every month and much of it is due to a deadly substance coming from another country.”
555 BC residents have died due to drug overdoses in 2016.
32 people have died in Northern BC this year, while 10 people have died from fentanyl alone in Prince George.
Prince George RCMP Superintendent Warren Brown says police have responded to over 100 overdose calls since October of 2015 with 12 of those being fatal.
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