A spike in drug overdoses in Victoria over a 24-hour period, including one death, prompted Island Health to issue an alert Friday to anyone planning to use illicit drugs, and to service providers.
Medical health officer Dr. Paul Hasselback said the drug users who overdosed likely believed they were using heroin.
The alert was issued because the cluster of overdoses was especially difficult to treat, Hasselback said.
Service providers are asked to warn anyone using drugs not to be alone, to have a safety plan and to carry naloxone. Witnesses to overdoses are urged to provide rescue breathing, administer naloxone and call 911.
“We posted it on our Facebook page and let all of our outreach workers know,” said Sharlene Law from the Umbrella Society for Addictions and Mental Health.
“This is the stuff we’re saying to staff every day as it is.”
A coroner’s report released this week showed B.C.’s overdose death crisis is not slowing down, with 136 deaths in the first four months of 2017. Victoria saw 37 deaths.
The majority of deaths occurred indoors and involved the deadly opioid fentanyl. Analogues of the drug, such as carfentanil, are difficult to detect and many times more potent.
A Victoria pharmacy, STS Pain on Cormorant Street, offers free drug testing and shares results on social media. In the past six weeks, the pharmacy has detected fentanyl in 14 samples of MDMA and seven samples of crystal meth, as well as heroin, ecstasy, ketamine and cocaine.
