overdose

B.C. parents filed a lawsuit in the B.C. Supreme Court on Sept. 6, 2023 that claims their newborn son was given at least four overdoses of medication while in the care of the B.C. Children’s Hospital. (BC Children’s Hospital Foundation/Facebook)

B.C. hospital overdosing error causes brain damage in newborn, lawsuit claims

Parents say son was given medication ten times stronger than prescribed

 

Bylaw asking people to move on after sleeping under the awning at the Pandosy Street Interior Health building on March 6. (Jen Zielinski/Capital News)

253 overdose deaths in first 7 months of 2023: Interior Health

Many patients are having three times the difficulty accessing services

 

Vancouver Coastal Health is joining other health authorities in the province in a move to a unified provincial text alert system warning of toxic drugs. (News Bulletin photo)

Vancouver Coastal Health reverts to new overdose text alert system for bad drugs

Vancouver began its own system called Radar in 2017

 

(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)

Conservative Leader Poilievre elaborates on controversial Kelowna tent city tweet

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre spoke with Capital News about homelessness in Kelowna

(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)
Andrew MacFarlane from VCH, Squamish Nation member, former elected councillor k'ana Deborah Baker, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jennifer Whiteside and Julia Kaisla, executive director of CMHA North and West Vancouver branch, celebrating the creation of Recovery College YVR, helping to focus on addressing gaps in mental health treatment, on May 2, 2023 (Charlotte Gilmour/Contributed to Black Press Media).

B.C. ‘recovery college’ looks to bridge gaps in mental health, substance use disorder

This program offers free courses, from self management to pet therapy

Andrew MacFarlane from VCH, Squamish Nation member, former elected councillor k'ana Deborah Baker, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Jennifer Whiteside and Julia Kaisla, executive director of CMHA North and West Vancouver branch, celebrating the creation of Recovery College YVR, helping to focus on addressing gaps in mental health treatment, on May 2, 2023 (Charlotte Gilmour/Contributed to Black Press Media).
Jacob Wilson was 24 when he died in Abbotsford, likely due to fentanyl. His mother, a long-time school trustee in the city, is now speaking candidly about their family’s story. (Submitted photo)

VIDEO: B.C. school trustee shares heart-wrenching story of losing son to fentanyl

Jacob Wilson survived traumatic brain injury with intervention, but left to die from addiction

Jacob Wilson was 24 when he died in Abbotsford, likely due to fentanyl. His mother, a long-time school trustee in the city, is now speaking candidly about their family’s story. (Submitted photo)
Makhan “Mak” Parhar speaks at an anti-mask rally outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020. Parhar died on Nov. 4, 2021 from a fatal combination of illicit drugs, according to the BC Coroners’ Service. (Flat Earth Focker/YouTube.com screenshot)

B.C. COVID-denier Mak Parhar died from toxic drugs, not virus: coroner

Parhar was infected with virus when he died, but it wasn’t what killed him

Makhan “Mak” Parhar speaks at an anti-mask rally outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020. Parhar died on Nov. 4, 2021 from a fatal combination of illicit drugs, according to the BC Coroners’ Service. (Flat Earth Focker/YouTube.com screenshot)
Ben Baker died of an accidental overdose on Jan. 23, 2023. The family is fundraising for two memorial benches to make a monetary donation in Ben’s name to The Last Door in New Westminster. (Ben Baker’s Legacy/GoFundMe)

Benches in West Kelowna, Lower Mainland help keep man’s legacy alive

All additional donations will be donated to the treatment facility Ben stayed at

  • Feb 2, 2023
Ben Baker died of an accidental overdose on Jan. 23, 2023. The family is fundraising for two memorial benches to make a monetary donation in Ben’s name to The Last Door in New Westminster. (Ben Baker’s Legacy/GoFundMe)
Jordan Williams laid in a hospital bed on life support for many days before his family made the difficult decision to remove the tubes keeping him alive after using drugs reportedly containing fentanyl. (Photo courtesy of Stormy Narcisse)

Family shares grief after son dies from toxic drug poisoning on small town B.C. streets

‘Something needs to be done’ -mother of man, who died this month after using toxic drugs

Jordan Williams laid in a hospital bed on life support for many days before his family made the difficult decision to remove the tubes keeping him alive after using drugs reportedly containing fentanyl. (Photo courtesy of Stormy Narcisse)
Moms Stop the Harm advocates and supporters march to the Ministry of Health building where pictures of loved ones hang on display during the sixth anniversary to mark the public health emergency on opioid-related overdose across the province in Victoria, April 14, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

179 people died from B.C.’s poisoned drug supply in October

October’s numbers bring 2022’s total to 1,827 lives lost

Moms Stop the Harm advocates and supporters march to the Ministry of Health building where pictures of loved ones hang on display during the sixth anniversary to mark the public health emergency on opioid-related overdose across the province in Victoria, April 14, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
A B.C. man is facing charges connecting him to a international criminal organization and two overdose deaths. (Black Press Media file photo)

Alleged B.C. fentanyl trafficker charged in connection with U.S. Navy deaths

Vancouver man believed to operate an international dark web drug and money laundering organization

A B.C. man is facing charges connecting him to a international criminal organization and two overdose deaths. (Black Press Media file photo)
Evidence bags containing fentanyl are displayed during a news conference at Surrey RCMP Headquarters, in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020. The federal government is set to make what it's calling an "important announcement" with the British Columbia government on the overdose crisis. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Canada to make ‘important announcement’ with B.C. on overdose crisis

Public health approach focused on reducing harms and saving lives to be revealed

Evidence bags containing fentanyl are displayed during a news conference at Surrey RCMP Headquarters, in Surrey, B.C., on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020. The federal government is set to make what it's calling an "important announcement" with the British Columbia government on the overdose crisis. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
A used naloxone kit is seen on the sidewalk as paramedics from B.C. Ambulance respond to a drug overdose in downtown Vancouver, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward)

Rural B.C. communities record staggering toxic drug poisoning deaths in 1st month of 2022

Eleven recorded deaths in Kamloops in January made it the third most affected township

A used naloxone kit is seen on the sidewalk as paramedics from B.C. Ambulance respond to a drug overdose in downtown Vancouver, Wednesday, June 23, 2021. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward)
Methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine from a safe supply being handed out to drug users by the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, Drug User Liberation Front and Moms Stop the Harm to mark International Overdose Awareness Day, are displayed in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, on Tuesday, August 31, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Lack of safe supply and evidence-based care at the core of B.C. drug deaths: report

Special death review panel releases ‘road map’ for province to address overdose crisis

Methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine from a safe supply being handed out to drug users by the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, Drug User Liberation Front and Moms Stop the Harm to mark International Overdose Awareness Day, are displayed in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, on Tuesday, August 31, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
A man waits to enter the Safeworks supervised consumption site at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre in Calgary, Alta., Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Alberta in talks to open overdose prevention sites

New operations in Clagary and Edmonton expected to replace Calgary’s only supervised consumption site

A man waits to enter the Safeworks supervised consumption site at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre in Calgary, Alta., Thursday, Aug. 26, 2021.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
A man prepares heroin to be injected at the Insite safe injection clinic in Vancouver on May 11, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Urgent need in Alberta to address potent drug supply, overdose crisis: health experts

More than 105 people died each month from drug poisoning between May 2020 and April 2021

A man prepares heroin to be injected at the Insite safe injection clinic in Vancouver on May 11, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
A protester gathers containers depicting OxyContin prescription pill bottles. (AP/Patrick Semansky)

Returning unused prescriptions to B.C. pharmacies could help prevent overdoses

New HPSA survey shows 1 in 3 Canadians do not know how to safely dispose of old, unused medications

A protester gathers containers depicting OxyContin prescription pill bottles. (AP/Patrick Semansky)
Nathan Watts, a member of the Tseshaht First Nation near Port Alberni, shares his story of substance use, a perspective he said isn’t seen enough. (Photo courtesy of Nathan Watts)

Public shaming, hate perpetuates further substance use: UVic researcher

Longtime addict Nathan Watts offers a user’s perspective on substance use

Nathan Watts, a member of the Tseshaht First Nation near Port Alberni, shares his story of substance use, a perspective he said isn’t seen enough. (Photo courtesy of Nathan Watts)
(Black Press file photo).

14-year-old B.C. teen lost to suspected overdose

RCMP and BC Coroners Service investigating

  • May 31, 2021
(Black Press file photo).
FILE – Linda Mantel with Glide Harm Reduction shows a strip that determines whether fentanyl is in a user’s heroin at a safe injection site simulation at Glide Memorial Church’s Freedom Hall on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. (Kevin N. Hume/S.F. Examiner)

B.C. paramedics respond to record overdose calls in 24-hour period for 2nd month in a row

BC Emergency Health Services says frontline workers responded to 146 overdose patients

FILE – Linda Mantel with Glide Harm Reduction shows a strip that determines whether fentanyl is in a user’s heroin at a safe injection site simulation at Glide Memorial Church’s Freedom Hall on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018. (Kevin N. Hume/S.F. Examiner)