Medical health officer Dr. Paul Hasselback said he wants people to talk about drug use and what can be done to reduce tragic outcomes in the wake of statistics that show 15 people have died of drug overdoses in Nanaimo in the first five months of this year.
That number is the highest on Vancouver Island next to Victoria, which saw 24 deaths between January and the end of May, according to statistics from the B.C. Coroners Service.
Nineteen people died in Nanaimo over the whole of 2015.
Hasselback, Island Health’s medical health officer for central Vancouver Island, said there has been concern about the rate of overdose deaths happening in Nanaimo for several years and the city has carried a far bigger burden of tragedy than other communities on the Island.
A local push to address the problem includes a greater police enforcement focus on fentanyl and the availability of take-home naloxone kits at places like Nanaimo Regional General Hospital and Harris House Clinic.
Drug-related deaths were declared a public health emergency in April, which has stimulated additional activity like better-flowing information on fatal and non-fatal overdoses, according to Hasselback.
“We now have something that is killing more people in our community than motor vehicle crashes, more people than suicides. These are sons, daughters brothers, sisters. There is a story behind each one of them and it’s the reason why we have a state of emergency.”
Hasselback sees a role for everyone in the community in the discussion. Some conversations around housing for people using drugs and safe consumption locations might be uncomfortable.
Dana Becker, manager of AIDS Vancouver Island’s Nanaimo office, said the ultimate goal would be a safe injection site with health workers and support staff.
“We can give them all the clean equipment we want, and we can give them all the take home naloxone kits, in the end if people are using alone, isolated, then they are at a much higher risk of overdose and death.”
Resistance to harm-reduction strategies will keep people at risk, said Becker.
Resident Susan Schleppe knows of men who died of drug overdoses and doesn’t see injection sites as a solution. She said the sites satisfy a number of people as being evidence we are doing something positive, but she said there will be an enormous amount of effort in setting such a thing up and staffing it and a the end of the day you are sending the message to go ahead and buy illegal drugs.